ADB to provide $235m loan for Karachi BRT

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $235 million loan to help develop a bus rapid transit (BRT) in Karachi.
The Karachi Bus Rapid Transit Red Line Project will be 26.6-kilometer (km) Bus Rapid Transit Line Red Line corridor and associated facilities benefiting as many as 1.5 million people, about 10% of Karachi’s population, who live within a kilometer of a Red Line BRT station. More than 300,000 passengers per day are expected on the Red Line BRT routes.
The ADB will partially administer two $100 million loans from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Agence Française de Développement to jointly finance the project’s civil works and equipment costs.
The project will restructure the entire width of the Red Line BRT corridor, including the construction of 29 stations and dedicated lanes along the 26.6km stretch; improvement of the mixed-traffic roadway with up to six lanes in each direction; inclusion of on-street parking and landscaped green areas in various locations; improvement of the drainage system to climate-proof the corridor; and installation of non-motorized transport infrastructure such as bicycle lanes, improved sidewalks, and energy-efficient street lights.