Prime Minister Imran on Friday inaugurated the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit Service (BRTS), the first-ever modern mass transit system of Karachi.
The federal government spent Rs35.5 billion (Dh720 million) to build the Green Line bus service, which will provide fast connectivity from Surjani Town to Numaish area near downtown of Karachi.
The 21km corridor of the Green Line bus service has 22 passenger stations and has the escalators, ticket rooms, special accessibility for differently-abled persons, and standby generators in case of electricity failure. Eighty modern air-conditioned buses, each having the capacity to accommodate up to 250 people, will provide mass transit services to 135,000 passengers daily. The maximum fare of the bus service for each passenger would be Rs55.
The Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (SIDCL) of the federal government completed the Green Line project. The ground-breaking of the Green Line project was held in 2016 during the previous government of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), which did nothing except ground braking.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Federal Planning and Development Minister, Asad Umar, said the trial operation of the Green Line bus service would start immediately after inauguration by the PM. He said the proper commercial operation of the Green Line service would commence from December 25 while the full-scale operation of the bus facility would be available to people of Karachi from January 10 in the coming year.
He said the SIDCL was also in the process of purchasing buses for the Orange Line section of BRTS in Karachi, whose corridor was being built by the Sindh government. He also said the Green Line project was the first mega development schemes to be completed, which had been earlier announced by the PM as part of the Karachi Transformation Plan.
Speaking on the occasion, the PM lamented that Karachi so far had lacked a modern public transport system, which was otherwise one of the basic features of a modern city. He said Karachi served as a revenue engine for the entire Pakistan so it required an autonomous management system as was being used to govern modern cities like London and New York.
He added that Karachi required an autonomous and empowered mayor whose election should take place through direct vote by the people of the city as was the case in other modern metropolitan cities. He said the ground-breaking ceremony of the K-IV bulk water supply scheme for Karachi would be performed in the next month as the project would be completed in 14 to 15 months to overcome acute water shortage in the city.
The PM invited the Sindh government to join the universal health insurance scheme of his government for underprivileged people that was being implemented in the rest of the country The PM said that the Sindh government should also agree to the plan to develop Bundal Island off the coast of Karachi into a modern city as the project would create massive revenue and employment opportunities for the people of Sindh.
