For the Bus Rapid Transit Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government approved hybrid vehicle technology and directed to launch advertising to get the attention of the concerned companies. The hybrid vehicular technology would be environmental friendly with focus on resolving issues of women and children commuting in the bus rapid transit.
Chief Minister, Pervaiz Khattak, while presiding over a meeting on the sustainable bus rapid transit Peshawar at Chief Minister Secretariat Peshawar revealed this. Special Assistant to Chief Minister Shad Muhammad, MPAs Shaukat Yousafzai, Meraj Humayun, administrative secretaries, representatives of Asian Development Bank (ADB), project experts and other relevant officers attended.
The meeting focused on the three packages of the rapid bus transit and the fourth for the parking and commercial activities at Hayatabad, Dabgari and the main bus terminal at Chamkani.
The meeting was informed about the first and third packages that were ready for tendering. The Chief Minister directed that the tendering process should be finalized and launched with wide publicity in the media. A presentation was made by the representatives of ADB appreciating the excellent government support, traffic management, relocation of utilities and strong leadership of Chief Minister for making this project feasible that led it to the implementation phase.
Pervez Khattak also directed to send him a summary for the additional resources required for the land acquisition, utility relocation, compensation to the affectees of the bus rapid transit, the overall plan of displacement and rehabilitation under the project. He reminded the participants that this was a unique third generation project that would address to all the traffic congestions in Peshawar. It would not be a subsidized project as compared to other such projects in the country. He was optimistic that the project would have the resources to pay back the loans. He also directed for the beautification of central part between the bus rapid transit lanes with absolute security.
The Chief Minister asked the Transport Department to initiate the process for the building of Trans Peshawar Company including the office and other requirements for the newly recruited Chief Executive Office of the company and the whole process should be completed within a week, he added. He also directed to expedite the process for loan agreement with Asian Development Bank in order to initiate the mobilization process on the project.
He also talked about the government’s steps for the traffic diversions, relocation of utilities and taking all the prerequisite steps to formally launch the Bus Rapid Transit Peshawar.
