Sindh Caretaker Minister for Transport and Mass Transit Colonel Dost Mohammad Chandio (retd.) stressed the need to seek suggestions from senior citizens and civil society on Karachi Mass Transit System to make it fault free.
The Minister expressed these views while presiding over a meeting on Red Line Bus Project in mid-July at his office.
On this occasion, Consultant of Asian Development Bank Colan and Peter, Project Director Mass Transit Authority, MD Mass Transit Authority, Hanif Mirchiwala, Chairman Board of Director, Tariq Kareem and others also attended the meeting.
He said that Karachi is life line of country and it needed a modern mass transit system. He said that coordination among Cantonment, CAA, KMC, PTCL and Water Board should be strengthened to remove all hurdles for smooth and timely launching and completion of project.
It is 29 kilometers long project which is a part of integrated Mass Transit System which will be connected with Green Line Bus Project and its construction work will start in March 2019 and will be completed within 24 months. It was further informed that it is an Asian Development Bank funded project and Sindh government would provide US $93.42 million, while remaining US $476. 93 million would be financed by ADB and its co-financers. The Red line is environment friendly project and CNG hybrid buses would ply on the route. Special arrangements have also been planned for the special persons to avail modern transport facility. As many as 25 stations would be constructed with a facility of large car parking area.
It was informed that key issues of this project are acquisition of land for construction of bus depot at Mosmiyat on the Karachi Water Board land and another depot at Malir Halt on the PTCL land. While, Karachi Water Board pipelines are also an issue which needed to be resolved in time. The experts are of the view that a large part of Karachi has suffered seriously due to the inefficient delays in green line project turning the life of Karachiites highly miserable even till now. The red line project can also create hurdles in the life of locals if it is not taken up in the designated times. The urban planning experts emphasized a proper planning of the project before its start.
