PESHAWAR: TransPeshawar – the Urban Mobility Company – that is to run the Bus Rapid Transit in Peshawar, plunged into a serious crisis after the unceremonious removal of its head led to a raft of resignations raising concerns about whether the already delayed project slated for the launch this month will see the light of the day.

Following the removal of the chief executive officer of the company, the chairman of board of directors, chief financial officer and general manager operations and market development resigned in protest on Friday.

On the approval of the cabinet, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak removed the company CEO, Altaf Akbar Durrani, over the delay in the procurement of buses for the project.

The resignation of the chairman of the board of directors and two other senior functionaries has left TransPeshawar without top management.

The Asian Development Bank-funded BRT was launched in Oct last.

According to the original plan, it was to be completed in six months but the frequent changes in design not only delayed its launch but also escalated its cost.

Removal of CEO leads to resignations at Trans Peshawar

The government initially fixed April 20 as the last date for the inauguration of the bus service though much of the civil work remains to be done including its main depots and sheds for the buses. Later, the date was extended to May 20.

Following delay in the procurement of buses including prototype and Intelligence Transport System (ITS), the chief minister expressed the desire to run ‘pink buses’ meant for other projects in the province to inaugurate the 23 kilometers long BRT corridor.

In his resignation letter sent to the chief minister, chairman of the TransPeshawar BoD Javed Iqbal observed that Pink Buses Project was neither fully funded nor has it been approved in the manner prescribed by the law. The Pink buses project meant for women commuters would be run in Abbottabad and Mardan.

“The forced assignment of an un-financed and unapproved declared project is not only against the express provisions of the law, it will place an unsustainable financial and manpower burden on TransPeshawar and runs the risk of jeopardizing the operations of the Peshawar BRT,” he said.

Citing multiple reasons for his removal as the company’s CEO, Mr Durrani in his letter written to the BoD members claimed that for meeting the desired scheduled of the chief minister, certain steps needed to be skipped that required the approval of the board.

He pointed out that the BoD was requested in its ninth meeting to approve two items: “impose a forced approval of the prototype unit and the detailed design on the bus supplier by April 22 so that the buss mass production could start on April 23 and to pay additional $30,000 per bus for land transportation of the buses to meet desired schedule of the chief minister to inaugurate the project before completion of his tenure.”

He added that in a meeting with the CM on April 19, the bus testing process and schedule was explained to him in detail by the bus consultant and bus supplier, who also told him that the prototype units would be available for testing from April 22 to April 28.

Mr Durrani maintained that the bus consultant had also mentioned that after testing was completed by April 28, they would need a week for completion of their report and if the prototype was accepted, only then the mass bus production could start.

“With this schedule, the delivery of the first batch of buses in May would be highly unlikely, over which the CM became very agitated and told them to leave,” he said.

Sources said the Brazilian experts had to come to Peshawar to conduct the prototype testing as the technology used in these buses was untested in Pakistan.

The CEO said based on the Asian Development Bank’s procurement procedures and the pace of the civil infrastructure work, both April 20 and May 20 dates, were unrealistic and unjustified.

He said TransPeshawar had followed the ADB’s procurement guidelines and did not cause any delay to the project.

“As such, my removal from the post of CEO was unfair and unjustified; nothing but a case of witch hunting and scapegoating,” he said.

In his letter, the CEO said the premature arrival of buses and its equipment would lead to a number of financial, operational and contractual issues for the company.

He said if the buses and equipment were procured before April 20 the government would already have been liable to pay a substantial amount of money to store and secure the buses and its equipment.

Mohammad Imran Khan, general manager (operations and market development), who had worked on five mass transit projects in the country, pointed out in his resignation letter that the government had repeatedly asked TransPeshawar for the delivery of buses by April 20, early engagement of VOC and operation of buses with incomplete civil work infrastructure and without depot for maintenance of buses.

“TransPeshawar is of the view that infrastructure will not be ready for operation by the end of the year and that the BRT project have failed worldwide because of the incomplete system operation,” he said in his letter.

He said the contract value for supply of BRT vehicles was Rs5.48 billion and has warranty of two years.

“Had TransPeshawar taken a decision and had the buses been delivered by April 20, 2018 or the buses handed over to VOC when the infrastructure is still not ready, the government would have faced a huge financial loss,” said the GM (operations).

He said: “My professionalism does not allow me to violate laws and work on project while foreseeing project failure with financial losses of more than Rs 50 billion and I can pray that the project sees light of the day.”

Special assistant to the chief minister on transport Malik Shah Mohammad Wazir was not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2018