KARACHI: The Sindh government has planned financing The Red Line — a route of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system — from its own resources after an Asian Development Bank team decided to relocate to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to work on a BRT project in Peshawar, it emerged on Friday.

Speaking at a workshop organised by the ADB on the bus rapid transit on Friday, Sindh Transport Secretary Tauha Ahmed Farooqui said The Red Line would be made operational by the end of next year or early 2017.

He was of the opinion that the BRT was much more affordable than the circular railway, subway or metro.

Take a look: ADB to help KP improve transport system

He said the government had already submitted a bill in the assembly to establish the Sindh Mass Transit Authority.

He expressed the hope that it would be passed within the next few months after which various mass transit projects would be quickly implemented.

Responding to Dawn queries, ADB Urban Development Specialist (Transport) for Central and West Asia David Margonsztern said the bank had earlier planned to bring in over $105 million to set up The Red Line (a 26-kilometre-long route from Safoora Goth to Tower via University Road and M.A. Jinnah Road).

A 20-member team of the bank comprising staffers and consultants had been working on the project for around a year and a half. But after spending around $1 million on the project, the team was now relocating to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it would work on a BRT project in Peshawar.

Mr Farooqui told Dawn that the ADB would have completed the project by around 2020, but the government would implement it as the transport issue was very serious and had to be solved on a priority basis. The project would be operational within 18 months, he added.

Earlier, former journalist and mayor of Bogota (Colombia) Enrique Penalosa, who is now associated with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, said the BRT was the only solution to solve Karachi’s transport issue.

With a better BRT system, he said, there would be fewer cars on roads and fewer traffic jams as people would be able to travel through public transport and reach their destinations easily and quickly.

Mr Penalosa said a developed city was not where more people had cars but where a greater number of rich people used public transport. Also, civilized cities had more public spaces such as parks where both rich and poor could enjoy, he added.

He suggested to the authorities concerned that one of the BRT routes could be planned on the unused Karachi Circular Railway, but the entire network should be planned together and integrated instead of planning a single route.

ITDP’s Yoga Adiwinarto, who has been managing a technical assistance programme to improve the trans-Jakarta BRT, said that around 1,600 buses were required for the entire BRT network in Karachi.

About the work done on various BRT projects in Karachi, the secretary said that a Chinese company was working on the 26-km-long Yellow Line from Korangi to Saddar, while The Orange, Blue and Green Lines were in different stages of planning.

He agreed with the president of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy — an NGO seeking to improve urban life quality by advancing sustainable transportation in cities across the world — that the integration of all BRT routes was necessary.

The secretary said assistance from any institution, including the ADB, would be appreciated in this regard.

Referring to the KCR revival, he said that demands of the donor, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), including tax exemptions for KCR equipment etc, had been met. Yet the JICA had not issued a letter. Some time back the JICA again contacted the government after a Chinese company showed interest in the project, he said. The JICA was then asked to give a time frame that it had not given so far, added the transport secretary.

But banks / financial institutions were not ready to provide funding to the transporters, he said, adding that a mechanism would have to be developed to convince them.

About The Red Line project, Mr Adiwinarto said parking, encroachment and street vendors, particularly on M.A. Jinnah Road, would have to be removed, relocated and better managed to make way for the BRT buses.

Social activist Arif Hasan expressed concern over the beautiful heritage buildings along M.A. Jinnah Roads and street vendors that would be affected by the BRT infrastructure. Besides, he said that due to project’s high cost, BRT ticket would also be expensive, between Rs70 and Rs90 per trip, for general public.

Responding to it, Mr Penalosa said that BRT infrastructure would be at grade (on ground) so it would not affect the heritage buildings and less traffic on roads would reduce pollution and improve the area.

Regarding vendors, the former Bogota mayor referred to the BRT experience in his town when he was in office and said they would have to be removed / relocated and compensated as roads and pavements were public spaces and nobody, rich or poor, could be allowed to encroach upon them.

Roland de’Souza of Shehri raised the issue why the Sindh government was taking over city government responsibilities such as local transport.

The transport secretary, however, said it was fine as long as someone fulfilled the responsibility.

Mohammad Ather of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Malik Zaheer-ul-Islam and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2015

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