BRT Red Line project: CM says work to be carried out ‘on a war footing’

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah formally approved the proposal of starting construction work on the first section of bus rapid transit (BRT) Red Linestarting from Malir Halt Depot to Mosmyat, University Road for Rs14 billion.

“This is a good news for the people of Karachi and I am sure the work would be started on war footings so that it could be completed within two and half years,” he said on Tuesday while presiding over a meeting of TransKarachi here at CM House.

The meeting was told that the Karachi BRT Red Line (KBRT) project was being implemented with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its co-financiers include AlIB, AFD and GCF. The total cost of the project is Rs78384.33 million. TransKarachi is its Implementing Agency.

The KBRT corridor would run through urban areas of the city originating from Malir Halt and terminating at Merewether Tower via Malir Cantonment, Safoora, University Road and Numiash. The civil work for KBRT Red Line Infrastructure would be carried out into two LOTS: The LOT-1 (Malir Halt to Mosmyat) and LOT-2 (Mosmyat to Numaish). The LOT 1 contract was signed on December 8, 2021, with a successful bidder for Rs 14 billion while LOT-2 contract was signed on January 4, 2022 with the successful bidder of a Joint venture (JV) of China Railway and AM Associates for Rs16 billion

Among the various infrastructure-related works to be carried out within the project, the most important one was relocation of utilities within the BRT corridor. For this purpose, various utility service providers were consulted during the project design stage. The company is in touch with utility agencies and they were ready to shift their lines from the right of way (ROW) of the project.

The meeting was told that regarding the various components of the project, a biogas plant is being planned at the existing abattoir land of 31 acres at the Bhains Colony Landhi Design, Build and Operate (DBO) basis.

The TransKarachi team is engaged on ground for site validation/ land survey with the objectives to identify built-up and open land areas for the abattoir location; to identify location for building periphery, type of building and number of floors in each building, dense tree areas and paved & unpaved areas. The demarcation exercise is being conducted.

The work on the first lot would be started in the second week of March for which machinery is being mobilized to Malir Halt.

The BRT Red line is a 25-km corridor which would have a rider-ship of over 300,000 passengers per day. As per plan, 240 buses would be procured for the project and their procurement order would be placed by the end of 2023.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022