The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has started work over the specification of buses for launching of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project worth Rs 481 million. The project aims at easing the traffic flow in the city. “The CDA Project Management Office (PMO) has prepared major terms and conditions for launching the BRT project under which, it will purchase 32 buses with Rs 256 million”, said a senior official of CDA while talking to Pakistan Today on Thursday. He said the CDA had formed a committee comprising representatives of Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP), Islamabad Transport Authority of CDA), CDA Engineering Wing, National Transportation Research Centre (NTRC) and other relevant departments.
The committee would decide about the specifications of buses such as purchasing low-floor buses or high-floor buses and after the approval from the committee, the CDA would purchase the buses, he added. The official said that BRT is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. This is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling, he said.
He said that under the project the CDA would establish grade-separated (or at-grade exclusive) right-of-way for the bus on the existing infrastructure or a bus lane would spare to allow the bus to operate separately, without interference from other modes of traffic. BRT systems can either share existing roadways with other traffic, or use bus lanes that restrict other traffic from a portion of the roadway, he said. The official said that CDA in its budget for the year 2010-11, had allocated Rs10 million for the project. The air-conditioned CNG buses would be mean for limited routes including Faizabad to Secretariat, Secretariat to Sector I-10 and between Faizabad, Blue Area and Sector F-11, he said.
e said that the federal capital had a population of more than 1.2 million with a four percent increase every year and one of the problems being faced the residents was non-availability of comfortable and affordable transport system. He said currently private transport was a major mean of mobility between two cities and around 1600 buses including Maza, Toyota Hiace and Suzuki vans. He said there was no organised bus service operating between the twin cites and the level of service offered by those minibuses operators was far below the minimum standards. “Therefore, the commuters have to relay either on their motorbikes other means of private transportation. As many as 210,000 vehicles ply on three corridors connecting both the cities carrying around 525,000 passengers daily. And the project like BRT is a must as no significant transport infrastructure has been introduced in the city during the last decade”, the official said.
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