GUJRAT: The Punjab government has planned to initiate a feasibility study to launch eco-friendly public transport in at least five cities.

The targeted cities include Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sialkot in central Punjab as well as Rawalpindi (north) and Sargodha (west).

The study is aimed at identification of the entire urban routes, planning, number of buses required for these routes, population, infrastructure and businesses in the targeted cities.

Earlier, such a study had been completed in Lahore, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Mianwali, said a senior official of the transport department.

He said it was yet to be decided that whether to launch electric or hybrid buses as an eco-friendly public transport in major cities of the province as the study might take at least eight to nine months after allocation of budget that had already been pre-done by Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP).

He said though the metro buses had been launched in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi but the planning for entire city routes had only been done for Lahore city.

However, he said the fresh study would be done on all the transport routes of these cities so that the people could have a modern and quality transport service as currently there was no coordinated transport system working in most cities except the metro bus services in three major cities of Punjab.

The central Punjab cities like Gujrat, Gujranwala and Sialkot are known as the golden industrial triangle of Pakistan with at least 14 million population and a handsome contribution in country’s exports.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2023