The remaining part of the Metro Bus service in Islamabad (Peshawer mor to Airport) has been made operational by borrowing buses from the Rawalpindi Metro services and Punjab Transport Authority to make the project operational.
According to sources the authorities have planned to add a specially designed bus to the route to carry luggage of the airport commuters. Work on the 25.6km metro bus track worth Rs16 billion was started by the PML-N government in 2017. It was supposed to be completed within a year. But after change of the government in 2018, the project saw an inordinate delay.
The project was executed by the National Highway Authority (NHA) and last year on the direction of the then federal government the CDA took over the project and started the process of procuring buses and setting up the command, control and ticketing systems.
Few months ago, the CDA ordered an international company to manufacture 30 buses in China. The buses were supposed to reach Islamabad last month for opening of the project on March 23. But due to the Covid-19 cases in Shanghai, the buses could not be shipped to Pakistan and are now expected to arrive in Karachi on May 5. So alternatively the CDA arranged 15 buses from the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service for plying on the airport route.
