EDITORIAL: The much delayed Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is finally up and running, nearly three years behind schedule. The project with a 27-km-long main track and 60km feeder routes connecting almost the entire city has won well-deserved praise. Air-conditioned buses are to arrive every three minutes during the peak hours and every five minutes in off-peak hours. They offer free Wi-Fi service and with low entry doors provide easy access to passengers with special needs. Another important feature of the buses is that they are diesel-electric hybrids, which should help reduce pollution to a significant extent. Inaugurating the BRT, Prime Minister Imran Khan described it as the best in the country. The claim appears to be right in some respects, but not all.
Imran, it may be recalled, had derided the Lahore metro bus service as the 'jangla bus', and hence of little value. That seems to have been at the back of his mind when he said that he had "reservations" about the project, and went on to compliment the former KP chief minister Pervez Khattak "because he always said that you will realize the importance of this project once it is completed. ... Pervez Khattak was right and we turned out to be wrong." The naysayer also turned out to be wrong in criticizing the previous Punjab government for subsidizing the bus fare even though examples from other countries show there is nothing new or objectionable about making tickets affordable for all. The BRT fare is being subsidized too with the ticket price ranging from Rs. 10 to 50. The government though has explained the necessary funding would come from the various commercial centres connected to the bus stops.
The most serious issues involve mismanagement and charges of corruption. The project launched in October of 2017 at the cost of Rs 49 billion was to be completed in six months' time, but ended up costing Rs 66.43 billion as it kept getting delayed. The government has been trying to justify the staggering cost escalation by pointing to project expansion. Indeed, after the approval of PC-1, as many as 22 changes were made in the project design. But that means those in charge either lacked the ability to plan right or deliberately dragged the project on and on due to some other considerations. Notably, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had ordered the NAB to investigate allegations of corruption, but the accountability watchdog was stopped from doing that in September 2018 by a Supreme Court bench. The issue was taken up again next year by the PHC, this time ordering the FIA to probe the suspected wrongdoing. Yet for an inexplicable reason the PTI government once again managed to obtain a stay order from the apex court earlier this year. As long as it keeps resisting a proper inquiry a question mark will remain over the project integrity. That should worry the PTI which never tires of claiming that the people gave it the mandate to clean the Augean stables of corruption. It would do itself a favour by removing suspicions surrounding the BRT project.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020