Karachi: Bus Rapid Transit System being considered

[Naveed Yaseen]

Centre asked to explore financial sources

Thursday, July 09, 2009
By Imtiaz Ali

The Sindh government has asked the federal government to explore financing for the “Bus Rapid Transit System” (BRTS) for Karachi under foreign and local public-private partnership, sources privy to this development told The News on Monday.

They said that owing to fiscal constraints, a proposal has been submitted to the federal government to implement the project on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. President Asif Ali Zardari approved the BRTS on the Bogot· Model for Karachi during his visit to the city on April 20. It will be initially developed in three corridors — Nagan Chowrangi to the Cantt Station; Safoora Goth to Numaish Chowrangi; Orangi to the Board Office Chowrangi.

Subsequently, five meetings were held to review the progress of the project, with the last one on June 27, where representatives of provincial and federal governments and the Karachi Mass Transit Cell (KMTC) of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) decided to refer the matter to the federal government to seek donor assistance, including from Asian Development Bank (ADB) as it had remained associated with the project.

Sources said that the cost of the project was initially estimated at US$145 million. It included consultation charges, the bus-acquisition capacity building of the focal department (KMTC), the construction of the BRTS infrastructure and other activities for the implementation of the programme.

Sources quoted from the modified PC-I, and said that the estimated cost has now increased to US$1,558.8 million, as stated by a representative of federal government during a meeting with the provincial government and CDGK officials on June 18.

They further said that the Sindh government has realized that the city was at a “crossroads” of its transport provisions with special reference to daily trips by public transport, low motorization rates, rapid population growth and the city’s speedy vertical and horizontal expansion. These factors justified the launch of an “efficient and effective integrated transport system” for the smooth movement of people and goods within and through the city to facilitate economic development and “minimise negative externalities of the transport sector such as congestion, population, lack of safety and inaccessibility.”

Sources also spoke about the background of the project, and said that a detailed study titled “public-private partnership-based environment-friendly public transport system of Karachi” was conducted in 2006 by the KMTC. The study was funded by the federal government.

Later, the transport sector road map was prepared by Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the multi-funding facilities (MFF) programme of the “Karachi Mega City Project”. A pre-feasibility study was undertaken jointly by the ADB and the KMTC team.

The pre-feasibility study report, purportedly based on extensive field visits and surveys and close interaction between ADB consultants and KMTC team, proposed that BRTS lines 1 and 3 — Surjani Town to Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum (25 km), and Orangi Township to te Board Office, North Nazimabad (4 km) — be implementated in Phase-I.

Sources said that the Sindh government has decided to implement the BRTS project as a “key initiative” and has asked the KMTC to arrange consultancy services and prepare the concept and the reference design with special reference to BRTS development and implementation within two-and-a-half years.

In order to expedite the project, the Sindh government has recently written a letter to the chief executive of the federal government’s Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF) to explore the financing of this project under foreign and local public-private partnership mode.

Meanwhile, experts suggest that in order to effectively use this bus project for facilitating commuters, the government has to learn other things from Bogot·.

One such thing was training and education of drivers, said Dr Noman Ahmed, the chairman of the Department of Architecture and Planning at the NED University of Engineering and Technology. He was of the opinion that there can be no improvement in the traffic system as long as the government does not provide proper training to drivers. Besides, he added, Bogot·’s mayor, who recently visited Karachi, had focused on enhancing public spaces such as footpaths, and building cycle tracks up to 25 kilometres.

He said that there would be thousands of people specially youths who would be willing to ride bicycles, which happens to be the most environment-friendly mode of transportation. He recalled that it was not too long ago when students used to come to universities on bicycles and if the government provides designated cycle tracks, they might use it again. Dr Ahmed feared that the increasing cost of the bus project might make it unfeasible if the government does not get soft loans.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=187151