PESHAWAR: Things may turn for better or for worse in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa depending on how the execution of much-awaited Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) mega project goes forward from next month.
\nIf the Peshawar Sustainable BRT Corridor Project is completed in its estimated record time of six months the development can change the face of Peshawar as well as give people a good reason to think before they vote in the next general election, but incomplete construction causing inconvenience may turn things for the worse for the ruling parties in the province.
\nWith the next general election coming closer, completion of about 26 kilometres long BRT project would be not less than a race against time. Project design details are in progress and contractor\u2019s selection process will start next month. The total cost of this mega project is estimated to be about Rs41 billion, officials said.
\nOfficial documents available with National News Paper\u2019s reporter (Source) reveal that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will borrow Rs31.8 billion of the total cost from the Asian Development Bank that constitutes about 88.8 per cent of the total expenditure of the project.
\n\u201cConstruction will start right after approval of the loan by ADB next month,\u201d said a concerned official while sharing details of the Peshawar BRT project which was earlier called \u2018Mass Transit System\u2019.
\nIf execution of the project starts by mid April, the project is expected to be completed by January 2018 while the tenure of the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government would expire in May 2018.
\nPTI chairman Imran Khan had been earlier deriding the Metro Bus in Lahore as \u2018jangla bus\u2019, claiming that his party\u2019s focus was more on human development than construction of highways and roads as opposed to his political rival PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif who had developed the metro bus systems in Islamabad and Lahore.
\nCompletion of the Peshawar BRT is now only a race against time as Chief Minister Pervez Khattak is hoping to complete it in six months. The Islamabad Metro Bus project took 14 months to complete while Lahore Metro Bus service was functional in 11 months.
\nA comparative analysis of the metro bus systems in Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar revealed that while the 27km Lahore Metro Bus service was developed at Rs60 billion and the 23.2km long Islamabad metro bus service cost about Rs50 billion, Peshawar\u2019s BRT would cost Rs41 billion.
\nHowever, government officials here acknowledge that costs might escalate. Lahore\u2019s metro bus project was contracted out on market rate to ensure double shifts, while Peshawar\u2019s BRT is likely to go on government approved rates only.
\n\u201cThe cost of Lahore Metro Bus project is about 67 per cent higher than that of Peshawar BRT,\u201d said an official who admitted that the real test lied in completion of this mega project in its estimated time.
\nHowever, another government official expressed his apprehensions about construction cost of the Peshawar BRT on government rates, saying it might slow the project down and its completion date might overshoot.
\n\u201cIf we don\u2019t do it at market rate like the Punjab government has done, I fear we might not complete it by January 2018,\u201d said the official.
\nThe Peshawar RBT project would not only resolve the agonising problem of traffic congestion in the provincial capital, it would also give a much-needed facelift to the terrorism-torn provincial capital.
\nThe 26km BRT corridor having 31 stations would be running about 14.9km at grade, about 6km at elevated level and some 4.9km through tunnel. It would also have additional features like 68 kilometers feeder bus route service, high standard bus stops at about seven feeder routes with shelter and advanced passenger information system.
\nAbout 383 big and small buses from feeding area would be plying to the main route. Commercial area and one nine-storey plaza with parking and two three-storey parking plazas are also additional features of this project, officials said.
\nThe Peshawar BRT would start from Chamkani, go along GT Road\u2019s famous spots like Khyber Bazaar, SoekarnoChowk, Railway Road, Dabgari, Sunehri Masjid Road and onwards passing through a tunnel near AmanChowk.
\nThe route would then take a left turn before the Bab-i-Peshawar Bridge, go at elevation through dried riverbed to old sewerage treatment plants and onward to Bagh-i-Naraan, Tatara Park, passing by PDA building and end at Jamrud Road with ShaukatKhanum Cancer Hospital as its last stop, according to the project documents.
\nBusy bazaars like Saddar, Khyber and those on the University Road would have the pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. Toilets and restrooms at all stations along the corridor would also be constructed, said an official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR: Things may turn for better or for worse in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa depending on how the execution of much-awaited Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) mega project goes forward from next month. If the Peshawar Sustainable BRT Corridor Project is completed in its estimated record time of six months the development can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-peshawar"},"yoast_head":"\n