• Mass Transit Authority Board approves retaining existing staff for three months
• Sharjeel says govt to utilise all necessary resources to make transport system more effective

KARACHI: The Sindh government on Friday announced that it’s going to take over the operational control of two Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects — Green Line and Orange Line — from the federal government on March 10, after which the provincial administration would manage the 100-bus fleet service of the two public sector transport schemes.

The decision was made at the 14th meeting of the Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA) Board which was chaired by Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon.

“The Sindh government will officially take control of the Green Line and Orange Line BRTs on March 10, 2025,” said a statement issued after the meeting. “The experts participating in the meeting presented their suggestions for the effective management of the two BRTs. Discussions were held on sending the documents related to the Green Line and Orange Line BRT agreements to the law department for legal validation,” it added.

The meeting was attended by Sukkur Mayor Arsalan Islam Sheikh, Hyderabad Mayor Kashif Shoro, Transport Secretary Asad Zamin, Managing Director of SMTA Kamal Dayo, Member of Planning and Development Sikandar Sheikh, DIG Traffic Pir Muhammad Shah, consultants, and other key stakeholders.

“The meeting also approved retaining the existing human resource structure of the Green Line and Orange Line BRT for three months,” added the statement.

During the meeting, Mr Memon stated that the Sindh government was committed to providing modern and high-quality travel facilities to the public. “The transfer of the Green Line and Orange Line BRT will further improve the public transport system. The Sindh government will work on further developing the Green Line and Orange Line BRTs,” he added.

He further added that to provide fast, comfortable, and excellent travel facilities to the public, more reforms are being introduced in the transport sector. The Sindh government will utilise all necessary resources to make this system more stable and effective.

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 Orange Line project was inaugurated in June 2016 by Sindh’s then Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, four months after the Green Line’s launch by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. It was opened to the public in September 2022.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025