ISLAMABAD: Third party inspection of metro buses that are expected to be brought to Islamabad has been completed in China. The ship that will transport them to Pakistan will set out on March 15. It will take 20 days for the ship to reach Karachi from where it will be brought to Islamabad.

This was highlighted by the Capital Development Authority (CDA). “We are going to fulfill the promise of starting this public welfare project. State of the art buses have been manufactured and their pre-shipment has been completed,” said CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed.

Talking to Dawn, he said: “Launch of the bus service will provide modern and quality travel facilities to citizens of Islamabad. The bus service will help take some vehicular pressure from other roads.”

Citizens will be provided quality travel services, CDA chairman says

“Third party pre-shipment inspection of buses to ply on Peshawar Mor to New Airport metro bus route has been completed in China. The buses will be shipped to Pakistan on March 15 and will reach Pakistan in 20 days.

“Similarly, the trial run of Metro bus service will start in the first week of April. Total of 30 buses will run on this route. The buses have been painted in orange color in accordance with Orange Route,” read a press release.

Earlier, the CDA was planning to inaugurate the bus service on March 23 but it has been delayed and shifted next month.

Sources in CDA said 30 buses are arriving and the CDA will also use some of the buses for running a public bus service from Expressway to Faisal Mosque. They said that traffic congestion has been witnessed on the expressway and due to the bus service, it will be controlled to some extent.

The CDA, after a competitive process had placed the order for procuring 30 buses to an international bus manufacturing company called Higer Bus Company, which had submitted a bid of Rs728 million for the 30 buses. They said the company manufactured buses in China.

The CDA took over the metro bus project in March last year from the National Highways Authority (NHA) on the direction of the federal government and started the process to procure the buses.

Construction of the bus track (25.6 kilometres) worth Rs16 billion was started in January 2017. The project was executed by NHA and it was supposed to be completed in Aug 2018 but its civil work was completed last year.

However, after completion of civil work, a new issue arose, when NHA stated that its responsibility was only to construct corridors and do civil work and it had nothing to do with the operation of buses. Similarly, Punjab Masstransit Authority, which is already running Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro bus service also refused to run the service.

Then CDA was asked to do it, but it also refused after stating that being a development authority, it had nothing to do with operation of bus services.

However, the federal government jumped into matter and directed the CDA to take over this project from NHA and take steps for starting operation of the bus service.

In March last year, the CDA finally took over the said project. The corridors and stations of the metro track have already been constructed and now command and control, ticketing, station management, cleanliness and security systems are being completed. “The bus services will be started next month anytime,” said an official of CDA.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2022