PM Imran Khan inaugurates Peshawar BRT

The Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (Peshawar BRT), one of the leader ventures of the PTI government, is, at last, going to run from today (August 13) onwards. It has taken three years to finish.

Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (Peshawar BRT) project, the flagship project of the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government today.

KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan along with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Defence Minister Pervez Khattak was present at the launch of the project.

Here are some features of the project:

• Service will operate from 6 am to 10 pm every day.
• The track is 27 kilometers long.
• At least 128 buses will run on it.
• Thirty bus stations have been made functional.
• A trip may cost anywhere between Rs10 and Rs50, depending on where people want to travel.
• People will have to use ZU cards for the service. The cards can be purchased from the ticket counter or machines. And they will have to be recharged.
• Children shorter than three feet ride for free.
• Automatic doors, escalators, and lifts have been installed at different stations.
• There are separate waiting rooms, bathrooms, and ticket counters for women.
• A separate track has been constructed for people with disabilities.
• The stations and buses will have free wi-fi.
• The project has been completed at the cost of Rs69 billion.

KP Labor and Culture Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said they are propelling the most recent innovation for the individuals of Peshawar. He even welcomed PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to go on the Peshawar BRT.

“This will end up being a major gift for the individuals of Peshawar,” said Yousafzai.

A rough street: Peshawar BRT’s course of events

The PTI’s leader venture was propelled in October 2017 with the expectations that it would be developed inside a half year, which would have made it perhaps the quickest undertaking to be built in the nation.

Here’s how the events surrounding it unfolded:

• Former Peshawar CM Pervez Khattak laid the foundation stone on October 18, 2017, and said it would be completed in six months.
• In April, Khattak extended the date by another eight months.
• In 2018, Yousafzai took responsibility for the project and announced that it would be inaugurated on March 23, 2019.
• The same year, the Peshawar High Court ordered NAB and then the FIA to investigate delays in the project.
• On February 3, 2020, the Supreme Court stopped the FIA from investigating the Peshawar BRT project until the project was completed. Government officials had filed an appeal asking for an end to the inquiry.

Controversies

From corruption allegations to the approval of faulty designs, the BRT project has been embroiled in many controversies.

Let’s take a look at some of the difficulties the project faced during its construction:

Faulty design

1. Approval of a faulty design delayed the project as the tracks were initially too narrow for buses. The design was changed and the tracks were reconstructed at the Sunehri Mosque Station, Tehkal Road Station, and Hayatabad Station.
2. The road near the Firdous feeder route was also demolished and rebuilt. The authorities said this was because the surface of the road was too slippery for buses so they made a concrete surface.
3. A picture of a gas pipeline crossing the underground market in Peshawar’s Hashtnagri started circulating on social media, prompting criticism on April 14, 2019. People had to duck under the pipeline, practically doing the limbo, to cross the underpass which is part of the BRT. The government then decided to install two 90-meter pipelines along the bus station at Hashtnagri to remove the existing pipeline.
4. The planning failures led to a 35% increase in the cost of the project. The funding was increased from Rs49 billion to Rs69 billion.

Corruption allegations

1. An assistant resident engineer associated with the project resigned on May 18, 2018, over what he said was “huge corruption” in the project. In a letter to KP the chief secretary, the resident engineer said that “the contractor has been paid a huge amount for nothing which needs to be addressed and a huge corruption is involved”.
2. On April 2, 2019, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government dismissed its transport secretary over delays in the project construction.

Accidents and robberies

1. In 2019, a woman died in Peshawar after she was hit by a bus during the BRT test run. The woman, who worked as a maid at a nearby bungalow, was hit by a bus when she was crossing the BRT corridor in Hayatabad. The grills had not been installed around the corridor at that point.
2. On July 15, 2020 lift counterweights were stolen from a station. The police registered a case against unidentified suspects on the complaint of the project manager. According to the FIR, the goods were worth Rs300,000. They were stolen during the presence of a guard.