The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) worth Rs 481 million is likely to face delay as the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has refused to provide CNG for it owing to shortage of gas.
“The SNGPL has informed the CDA’s directorate concerned that it could not provide CNG for the CDA’s BRT Project in the current situation. The SNGPL would provide CNG for the project if new source of gas was explored in future in the country,” a senior official of CDA told Pakistan Today on Friday.
He said the CDA earlier demanded 25,000 cubic feed per day (CFD) uninterrupted supply of gas from the SNGPL for the project. “The CDA would be unable to start the project if the SNGPL did not provide the required uninterrupted supply of gas,” he said.
However, he said the CDA had also held meeting with the high ups of Ministry of Petroleum regarding allocation of CNG for the project. The high officials of the Ministry of Petroleum had assured the CDA that they would allocate gas for the project, he said.
The official said the CDA Project Management Office (PMO) had prepared major terms and conditions for the launch of BRT under which they would purchase 32 buses worth Rs 256 million. The civic authority had constituted a committee, consisting of representatives of the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP), Islamabad Transport Authority, the CDA engineering wing, National Transportation Research Center (NTRC) and other related departments, he said. He said the CDA had allocated Rs10 million for the project in the budget 2010-11. The air-conditioned CNG buses would ply on limited number of routes, including Faizabad to Secretariat, Secretariat to Sector I-10 and between Faizabad, Blue Area and Sector F-11, he said. He added that, currently, private transport was a major means of mobility between two cities whereas 1,600 minibuses were plying on 16 routes within and between the twin cities.
The official further said there was no organised bus service operating between the twin cites and the level of service offered by the minibuses was far below any acceptable standard, so commuters had to rely on either two wheelers or other forms of private transport.
