A BUS rapid transit (BRT) service from Islamabad city to Islamabad International Airport has been planned. This is being executed and much of road infrastructure has been built. This project will probably be a failure.

A BRT is usually successful where the number of commuters are in excess of the traditional public transport systems. The proposed route hardly offers that density. What is needed is a good quality coach service.

These luxury coaches should link all major points in Islamabad and Rawalpindi like Super Market, Jinnah Super, F10 market, and Rawalpindi’s Sadder, etc, and then run non-stop to the airport and back. The current roads in Islamabad are more than enough to allow this hi-speed connection. In addition, if needed, an economy service can also be run. In future, similar service may operate from other towns which have a high passenger load.

The good part of this proposal is that the government need not spend any money on this. It can just design the route and allow the private sector to run the service.

Nasir Javed

Lahore

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2018