KARACHI: The stalled development work on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Green Line extension project on M.A. Jinnah Road is likely to start within next two months as the Sindh government has started the preliminary work for the two-kilometre long route of the project from Municipal Park to Merewether Tower, officials said on Thursday.
This information emerged during the meeting of Public Accounts Committee, which took up the matters related to the Sindh transport department with the chief of the parliamentary body, Nisar Khuhro, in the chair.
When Mr Khuhro inquired from the secretary of transport and mass transit about the progress of the BRT Orange Line and the additional Green Line route projects, the meeting participants were informed about the plan.
Work to restart in two months, PAC told
The project was launched more than three years ago in December 2021.
“The Secretary of Transport and Mass Transit informed the PAC that work on the BRT project is progressing rapidly, and efforts are being made to complete the project soon,” said a statement issued after the meeting.
“The secretary transport informed that the Sindh government will provide 20 buses for the BRT Orange Line. Furthermore, development work on the route from Numaish to Tower will commence within the next two months.”
Envisaged and executed in February, 2016, by the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the Green Line project was originally scheduled to complete in a year with an estimated cost of around Rs16.85 billion. However, it took almost six years to complete and the cost reached Rs35bn.
Almost after six years of its ground-breaking and after facing many hurdles, the project formally began operating in Jan 2022.
The people of Karachi, who were yearning for a better transport service for nearly three decades, gave a ‘positive’ response to the Green Line bus service.
During its first six months of running as close to six million citizens travelled through its dedicated corridor on 80 buses in the given period.
However, a question remained about its effectiveness because the project had been originally designed to be connected with the Sindh government-funded Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) — which is the shortest route in all five BRTS — and the Red Line, which is still being developed.
“The final phase of the Green Line consists of two parts,” said an official.
“One is from Numaish to Municipal Park on main M.A. Jinnah Road which is 1.8-kilometre long. It would be built by the federal government and the other is from Municipal Park to Tower which will be executed by the Sindh government. The federal government has also started the process to complete its job while the Sindh government, as told by the officials to the public accounts committee, has taken up its task.”
Audit records
Meanwhile, during the meeting, the Public Accounts Committee issued a show-cause notice to a senior official of the transport department for not complying with its directive to provide audit records.
The statement said the PAC also took notice of the failure to recover taxes amounting to Rs6.686 million from the contractor responsible for the buses providing pick-and-drop service to employees of the Sindh Secretariat.
Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2024
