Daily Times

KARACHI: Sufferings of Karachiites especially the commuters will not be over in 2017 and they should be ready to face even more difficulties next year due to extension in the ongoing Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. The official deadline of the project is also unclear.

The Rs16 billion mega project, propagated to benefit nearly 300,000 passengers per day, has been designed to facilitate commuters with quality transportations as providing high speed (25 Km/h) and high capacity (29,400 passengers per hour per direction) service”, project report reveals.

Sources said that the Karachi Infrastructure Development Company Limited (KIDCL’s) project has been extended from Gurumunder to another ten kilometers further and now the Green Line BRT service will start in 2018.

When contacted, Chief Resident Engineer of EA Consulting Pvt Ltd involved in monitoring and supervising the entire project told Daily Times that amendment in the initial project on the part of KIDCL is causing the delay.

He further said that his company had started work in April this year and would have finished it by December 2017, starting from Surjani Town to Gurumunder. However, the work on the extended portion of the project will be completed in 2018.

Sources said that due to construction on the extension in the mega project Jamaa Cloth from Gurumunder via M A Jinnah road, people will now also suffer on the major thoroughfare of the city.

Official website of KIDCL, the executing company of the project, does not reveal the completion date of the project.

KIDCL works under the Ministry of Communication. It comprises of board of directors that include architectures who are responsible for planning and implementations of the project.

The Green Line BRT service routes were first planned to start from Gurumunder to Power House in Surjani Town having 22 bus stations.

When contacted KDICL field office located in North Nazimabad, no one was able to give a clear date regarding the completion of the project.

In February, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during the groundbreaking ceremony of Green Line BRT was optimistic that the project would be completed by next year (2017). Even he was not sure of the exact completion date of the project.