The Sindh government yet again paid lip service to vital project of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) while allocating Rs 3.2 billion for the transport sector in the budget for the year 2016-17.
Senior Minister for Finance Murad Ali Shah presenting the budget for the year 2016-17 in the Sindh Assembly on Saturday said that Rs 9.9 million has been allocated for establishing transport and mass transit department in order to efficiently handle the public-private partnership projects. Besides, the ADP for the next financial year is pitched at Rs 3.2 billion which is an increase of 6.7 per cent over ADP of Rs 3 billion of CFY, he added.
The government of Sindh intends to introduce Sindh Mass Transit Authority Bill for creation of Sindh Mass Transit Authority to enhance the capacity of the department to conduct mass transit projects and to ensure transparency, he said. With this vision, various critical mass transit projects are under process at various stages including development of various BRTs. All BRTs listed below will be finally integrated with the help of Asian Development Bank, the minister added.
The BRT Yellow Line corridor is 26 km in length with ridership of 1,50,000 passengers per day. The project cost is Rs 16 billion. Its route alignment is from Dawood Chowrangi to Shahrah-e-Quaideen.
