Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed the departments concerned to prepare a detailed plan for the extension of the Green Line Bus project.

Presiding over a meeting to review the progress on the bus project, the chief minister was told that the federally-funded Green Line Bus project had attained more than 65 percent physical progress. “Original scope of the project from Surjani to Guru Mandir (Phase 1-A) is near completion and will be finalised by the end of December 2017.”

The meeting was attended by Minister for Transport Syed Nasir Shah, Communications Secretary Siddique Memon, Planning and Development Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Soaleh Farooqui, project director for the Green Line Bus project, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Transport Secretary Saeed Awan, Local Government Secretary Ramzan Awan, Zubair Channa, consultant of the project and other officials concerned.

The meeting was told that one of the key components of the Green Line Bus project was the construction of a state-of-the-art bus depot in Surjani Town area near Abdullah Chowarngi.

It was shared that the Karachi Infrastructure Development Company Limited (KIDCL), the company responsible for construction of the project, had requested the Sindh government to allot 12 acres for establishment of a bus depot. However, the chief minister was informed that the Sindh government had allotted only four acres land which was not enough for the construction of the depot. The chief minister directed his principal secretary and transport secretary to get extra eight acres arranged so that bus depot could be established as per international standards.

The chief minister was told that the conceptual design of the extension of Green Line Bus project was developed after the approval of the extension from Guru Mandir to Municipal Park and further into CBD area.

According to the proposal the Section after Numaish Intersection is proposed to be elevated through signalized intersection of the Day hospital and Garden Square uptol Tibet Center which would be turned around with elevated turn facility at Municipal Park as U-turn and the last BRT station along Green line BRTs.

As per requirement of Sindh, a provision of extension of the BRTs at Municipal Park would be developed for further extension. There were three options for BRT Green Line route from Numaish to Municipal Park, including ‘At Grade, Underpass and Elevated’.

At Grade: Under the At grade proposal, the Green Line would passing through four major signalized intersections and one major signal from Jameela Street. The Lanes availability would reduce to 3 lanes in some stretches with two 2 bus stations. There would be a rotary for turnaround facility shall be constructed at grade.

Underpass: Under this proposal MA Jinnah Road shall be blocked at two locations (bus stations) during construction period which would be around three to four months. Under the proposal there would a large extent of utility re-location. Rotary for turnaround facility shall be constructed at grade.

Elevated: There is a proposal for construction of elevated structure. Under the elevated structure there would obstruction view of Mazar-e-Quaid as the objection raised by one of the KIDCL board Member. For the elevated structure, again a rotary for turnaround facility shall be constructed at grade. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah concluding the meeting said that a through working may be made in consultation with experts on all the three options within next 10 days.

“After 10 days I will hold another meeting to take final decision so that the work stopped at Numaish Chowrangi could be started,” he said.

Published in Daily Times, October 28^th 2017.