ISLAMABAD: The PML-N’s flagship project, the metro bus service, has failed to achieve its estimated ridership figure during its first eight months since its operations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Citing a report from July 1, 2015 to Feb 29, 2016, a source in the Punjab Metro Bus Authority (PBMA) said ridership was below the National Engineering Services Pakistan’s (Nespak) estimated figure.

Nespak had estimated that there would be over 135,000 metro bus passengers per day. However, approximately 110,252 passengers commute via the metro bus daily. The metro bus authority compiles a daily report of service users based on the board of passengers from all 24 bus stations in the twin cities.

A total of 26.46 million people have used the facility over the last eight months. The Rs44.8 billion project is one of the major initiatives taken by the incumbent government for the twin cities. Under this mega project, a 23 kilometre corridor – including elevated and underground roads – was built from Saddar, Rawalpindi to Secretariat, Islamabad.

According to the report, the authority collected Rs529 million in revenue through ticket purchases. The total cost of operations is much higher than the collected revenue.

The report stated that Saddar, which is the first station, remained the busiest throughout the eight months, with a total of 3,534,852 passengers boarding from there. Faizabad followed, with 2,530,793 passengers, and 1,558,041 passengers boarded the buses from Committee Chowk.

In Islamabad, the Pims station was the busiest – with 1,277,424 boarding passengers, followed by Pak Secretariat Station with 1,172,817 passengers. As many as 969,027 people boarded at Stock Exchange Station.

PMBA general manager operations Ozair Shah confirmed that actual ridership figures were lower than the estimate. However, he said the overall response of commuters was very high.

“Out of the total 68 buses we had been running 35. Recently, after seeing the response of the people, we have added 18 more buses for two hours every day. With the addition of these buses, the upcoming report will show improvement,” he said.

He said the non-availability of feeder buses was one of the main reasons why the Nespak estimate was not achieved.

“Once feeder buses start functioning we will easily exceed the estimate of the daily ride as people love to travel in metro buses,” he said.

The introduction of a feeder route network in the twin cities has faced delays. In November last year, PMBA, after receiving higher bids than the reserve rate, scrapped the entire tendering process for the purchase and operation of 78 feeder buses on various routes in Rawalpindi.

The Capital Development Authority, which announced its plan to ply 22 feeder buses in Islamabad some four months ago, has also failed to take any practical steps.

Mr Shah said the authority is going to announce tender for 78 feeder buses in Rawalpindi soon. “We have almost completed formalities for announcing tender. In the coming days, we will make it public,” he said.

CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said CDA has almost finalised file work to start the project. He said the authority will operate 22 feeder buses for the metro bus routes to augment overall traffic facilities in the capital.

He said the process for the selection of bus operation will commence as soon as the authority completes file work.

According to the initial plan, four routes have been selected for this purpose. He said the first route will commence at Bhara Kahu up to Marghzar Zoo – covering Dhokri, Aabpara, Polyclinic and F-6.

The second route will be from Rawat to Faisal Mosque. The third route will commence at Tarnol, up to F-9 Park/the Ibn-e-Seena Road station and would cover G-13 and the areas between the G and F sectors, including Karachi Company.

The fourth route will operate up to I.J. Principal Road, and will commence at the Railway Carriage Factory. However, he added that changes could be made to the proposed routes.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2016