KARACHI: The Sindh government on Saturday announced that a ship from China carrying 20 buses for Orange Line bus rapid transit service (BRTS) would arrive here on May 11.

It also set May 30 as the deadline to complete all the remaining jobs of the Orange Line project lifting hopes of Karachiites to get benefit of the four-kilometre-long service after more than five years of its ground-breaking in 2016.

The announcement came from Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon, who also holds the portfolio of transport. He visited the site of the project and was briefed by officials about the pace of work to complete the long-awaited project.

The minister directed the Sindh transport department to complete all the remaining tasks by May 30 and make the route ready for the service in the first week of June.

“The Sindh Mass Transit Authority has been directed to set up a camp office at the depot of Orange Line and to complete the remaining tasks by May 30, positively,” he told reporters. “I have decided to visit the site thrice a week and review the progress till the project is completed.”

He said the Rs4.29 billion Sindh government-funded Orange Line was named after Abdul Sattar Edhi. It starts from Orangi Town and connects with Green Line at Nazimabad Board Office.

“Some 20 buses of Orange Line project are arriving at Karachi Port on May 11,” he announced.

Later, the information minister visited the Karachi Press Club (KPC), met with the members of the governing body and office-bearers. In his brief talk at the club, he promised that the Sindh government would provide residential plots to remaining 700 members of the KPC on subsidised rates.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2022