Asif Nawaz Khan
Amid all ill-planning and controversies surrounding the BRT or Bus Transit System the Peshawariites, of late, going through severe militancy waves, finally got one of the comfortable and cheapest public transport systems which daily carries over 25,0000 passengers, including 20 per cent women.
Before getting functional on August 13, 2020, when then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chief Minister Pervez Khattak inaugurated the bus system, the BRT Peshawar remained steeped in controversies but considering its utility for Peshawariites it can now be easily said the project is one of the golden feathers in ruling provincial PTI’s cap.
Within three months of its launch over three million commuters used the facility—which provides Zu card service to facilitate passengers—with over 10 billion commuters availing the service in one-and-a-half years.
Many components of its design, including the cycle track, Khyber Road portion and parking plazas, are incomplete as the critics also question, blaming planners, but commuters—erstwhile using a dilapidated transport system in Peshawar—seem happy with the service because up to five stations the fare is Rs10 through the Zu card. Also, another ticket costing only Rs50 enable passengers to commute throughout the city’s 30 stations.
“Fares are collected through automatic ticketing system while in typical buses the same is done by bus conductors,” remarked one commuter namely Bilal Khan, adding: “the minimum cost for a ticket is Rs10 while the maximum Rs50.”
With the climate crises putting humanity on the brink of destruction while developing countries like Pakistan are at risk of global warming in large measure due to urban chaos and pollution, BRT buses hybrid technology will help Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa achieve green and clean energy targets.
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) awards the BRT a gold standard for providing environment-friendly facilities to Peshawariites. “The conventional transport system remains unsafe, time-and energy-consuming apart from being exorbitant in terms of money. But the BRT is a completely different ball game considering good behaviour of those availing the facility,” elaborated a female passenger who said: “passengers give space to females, disabled and elderly people,” adding: “there are separate seats for females, transgender and males.”
The BRT system, using 255 buses of which 155 remain 12 meters long while 65 are 18 meters long, consists of two parts; with the first part starting from Chamkani and ending in Karkhno while the second part comprises a network of feeder routes in which buses enter and exit the system to travel on city streets.
It may be mentioned here that the 18 meter long buses run on the service route while 12 meter long buses ply throughout the feeder system; with buses arriving every three minutes during peak hours and every five minutes during non-peak hours.
