Lahoris to be April fooled, or maybe not

As the project completion date of the first phase of Ferozepur Road, initial 10 km Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stretch, is set for April 1st, the commuters of the metropolitan of Punjab are anxiously awaiting to see that whether they would be fooled or the Punjab government sticks to its word. With the road separators on Ferozpur Road having been ripped off and the site offices having been established on the roadside near the Nawaz Sharif Park, it appears as if the first phase of the BRT Project has been kick started with the intention following the timeline.
The first phase has been initiated by authorities focusing on Ferozepur Road only. The Punjab government has commissioned Ulasim- a Turkish based company for BRT. The proposed plan of BRT is divided into three sections; Ferozepur Road Corridor (Green Line), Multan Road (Orange line) and Canal Road. The initial execution of BRT includes the first 10 km, which is from Chungi Amar Sidu to Kalma Chowk, with the aforementioned deadline of 1st April. The execution of the remaining 17 Km will started immediately after the culmination of Phase-I. The overall project completion date of the Green line corridor is set for December, 2012.
The Green Line BRT project is a 27 Km corridor in the centre of the road starting from Hudiara drain to Shahdara; and then to Lytton Road, MAO College, Lower Mall, Data Darbar, Niazi Chowk, and Shahdara. The route consists of 38 stations while the estimated cost of the project is Rs14 billion, whereas 120 busses would be divided among the three routes.
The Green Line Route would include two dedicated bus lanes allocated for the operation of buses while thirty seven (37) bus stations would be built on the curb side of the BRT lane. The design speed of the corridor is planned to be 35 Km/h. adding that access of the passengers to BRT station is provided with pedestrian bridges and pedestrian signals. Station length will accommodate up to three articulated buses, whereas the buses will operated at two minute headway.
The stations on the Green Line are follows, Rohi Nala, Hamza Town, Yuhanabad, Nishter Colony, Attari Stop, Bank Stop, Chungi Amar Sidu, Ghazi Road /General Hospital, Qainchi, Phattak, Childeren Hospital, Gulab Devi Hospital, Naseerabad, Model Town, Kalma Chowk, Garden Town, FC College, Muslim Town Mor, ShahJamal, Ichra, Shama, Jail Road, Mazang, AlamGeer Street, Muslim Gunj Jain Mandar, MAO College Secretariat, District Courts, Mosque Data Darbar, Taxali Gate, Willington stop, Yadgar, Islamia street, Timber Market, Niazi Interchange and Shahdara Mor. An architect at Emnay Design, Mubeen Ahmad was in favour of BRT. “I recommend urban transportation projects such as BRT for Lahore, and would also encourage that the sustainability of the BRT project to be through provision of customised and bottom up intervention”, said Mubeen. He said that by harnessing local resources rather than solely through capital intensive city programmes the BRT project could further cater to community and improve Lahore’s urban environment.