PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) leader and Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour on Tuesday termed the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project a punishment for the dwellers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) for voting in favour of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
In a press statement issued here on Tuesday, Senator Ilyas Bilour said that the KP government launched the BRT project in Peshawar without making any plans for an uninterrupted flow of traffic.
“This ill-planning of KP government has created a serious traffic mess in the provincial metropolis, making life miserable for city dwellers,” he said.
He added that PTI Chairman Imran Khan had not spared any time to inspect the BRT project and to observe the hardships faced by people due to severe traffic jams.
He further said that KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak was cheating the masses by making false claims of completing the project within six months. He also rejected the government’s claims that the work on the project was being carried out in three shifts.
He claimed that all roads from the entry point of Peshawar to Hayatabad have been destroyed whereas machinery is only visible on a few points, adding that it has been a month since the metalled roads were dug up, and no labour or construction staff can be seen on the construction sites.
He speculated that the BRT project would be unable to be finished in six months, saying that it would take nearly two and a half years instead. He also asserted that the project would not bring relief to the masses since the traffic mess would continue even after it was completed.
He opined that instead of launching BRT, KP government should have concentrated on the construction of overhead bridges and the removal of encroachments to streamline the traffic flow.
He called for the high court to take a suo motu notice of the project and to save the dwellers of Peshawar, especially students and the sick, from facing severe traffic blockades.
