KARACHI | Progress News & Updates

[Ahmad Rashid Ahmad]

Let 500 buses come....

[abidi2009]

5 bhi nahi ayengi!

[deltaone]

Landhi to Saddar in 30 minutes, thanks to rapid transit



Karachi: In Karachi, a new transport system is in the making. In this metropolis, where absence of subways or metros leaves the citizens with no other inexpensive option than to board the old, rusted passenger buses, finally there may be an alternative which allows them to shun the rickety coaches that take forever to reach one part of the city from another.

Construction is about to start on a dedicated bus lane for the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). The 22.4-kilometre track from Dawood Chowrangi in Landhi to Numaish Chowrangi in Saddar is expected to reduce the travelling time by half in this ever-expanding city. Another couple of months remain in its paperwork but the actual service will become available before 2014.

The city administration – Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) – thinks the project is imperative, considering the worsening traffic chaos.

“This is the way forward for Karachi,” says Anwer Baig, the director of Karachi Mass Transit Cell (KMTC). “It is the quickest and the most affordable way to travel around a city, which is fast expanding.”

With fuel prices soaring and car parking increasingly becoming a headache, the authorities have shown renewed interest in fixing the public transport system. The BRTS envisages around 200 large articulated buses running on either sides of the road’s green belt at an interval of few minutes.

“The median will be dedicated for buses only and the New Jersey barriers will be placed parallel with the track to stop motorcycles and cars from coming in,” said Baig.

The first BRTS track has been named Yellow Line. Once it is complete, around 13,000 passengers will be using it every hour.

The official said that the success of the project will centre on speed, convenience and privilege. While the average speed of traffic in Karachi is between 14km and 17km per hour, the rapid transit will offer the travellers to travel at 25km to 30km per hour. At present, the public transport buses are the most used medium of commuting but the most disliked also. Passengers are forced to ride atop the buses due to congestion and there are no speed regulations.

The passengers using rapid transit will have some privileges. At many intersections on its route, the buses will get longer “green time” – which means the people in private cars would have to wait at the stops a bit longer.

“We cannot have a dedicated track on the entire length of a route like Sharae Faisal. Rapid transit buses will mix with regular traffic before re-entering the tracks. This is done everywhere in the world but the traffic needs to be regulated at such points,” Baig said.

“Intelligent traffic lights will have to be installed for this purpose,” he said. “The role of traffic police to make [rapid transit] a success remains imperative.”

Too grand for Karachi?

The authorities believe there is every reason to be optimistic. “Many cities around the world are rapidly adopting this solution,” says Baig, who has been associated with the project since its inception.

Previously, many government-sponsored transport projects have come to a standstill. The poor condition of Green Buses and Metro Coaches are an example of the official apathy towards the issue. Even the rapid transit project was conceived a couple of years ago, but no headway were made until recently. But the KMTC director says some things have changed for the better this time.

“We have the Karachi Master Plan 2020 and a separate transportation plan. The Public Private Partnership Act 2010 is already in place, so we have legal cover,” he said.

“Things will go smoothly.”

The authorities’ seriousness can be gauged from fact that the KMC is finally inviting expressions of interest (EOI) to carry out a feasibility study of the Yellow Line. An amount of Rs500 million has already been set aside for the rapid transit buses in this year’s budget.

It’s all business

The Yellow Line has been conceived on public-private partnership to make sure government has some role in public transport. According to officials, the cost of the project is estimated at Rs2 billion, which means Rs20 bus tickets would be enough to sustain it. “Any company which runs the system can easily good earn money without pushing up fares,” said another official. “There are 21 stations along the route. They can use them for earning advertisement revenue. There are many other ways to make use of the space.”

Design

The stations will be built at the median of the road and will be four metres wide. Once a bus leaves the station, the median’s width will reduce to 0.75 metres to provide enough space for the buses to run on the roads. Each bus track is 3.5 metres wide.

The stations will be connected to sidewalks with a pedestrian bridge to let people coming from both sides to come onto the platform. The platform will be at an elevation to let passengers easily walk onto the bus without using stairs.

According to initial details, the buses will not be air conditioned, which has been done mainly to keep costs low and the fare within affordable limits. There is one problem, however. “People will have to get used to using the right-side door of the bus,” Baig says. “This means the driver’s side as the platform is in the middle of the road.” A Japanese firm – Japan International Cooperation Agency – has carried out detailed studies for two more rapid transit tracks. Six BRTS have been proposed for Karachi.


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Finally! BRTS for Karachi. Hope they build it this time around.

[Aashiq]

You guys think the transport mafia in Karachi is going to let this happen?

[deltaone]

Originally Posted by Aashiq

You guys think the transport mafia in Karachi is going to let this happen?

Highly unlikely. One thing is for sure they will not be happy reading about this. I'm sure transport mafia will be thinking of ways to stop this from becoming a reality. Let's see what happens this time around.

I just hope that KMC has the guts to say #&*^ off to those ANP thugs.

[deltaone]

More on BRTS:

Bus Rapid Transit System Sindh government, KMC agree to start pilot project

Sindh Government and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) have finally decided to start the much awaited Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) "Yellow Line" as a pilot project in the city. According to KMC, BRTS will be a 22-km route from Dawood Chowrangi to Numaish Chowrangi & Lucky Star via 8000 Road Korangi and FTC under public private partnership mode where daily commuters are about 0.7 million per day. The proposed RBTS would cater 13000 passengers per hour per direction.

The first meeting of the standing committee was held on July 30 in the committee room of finance department and attended by the Administrator Karachi Muhammad Hussain Syed, Director General Public Private Partnership Unit Sohail Rajput, Director General Karachi Mass Transit Cell Rasheed Mughal, and others.

The Standing Committee on this occasion accorded the approval to go ahead for publishing the expression of interest (EOI), besides approved draft RFQ documents to invite proposals from reputable and experienced firms/consortia to prepare a feasibility report covering technical, financial, economical, legal and environmental aspects along with transaction advisory services for the BRTS "Yellow line" under public private partnership mode.

KMC Administrator said bus rapid transit facility could solve the transport problems in Karachi. He emphasised the need and necessity of transit facility. Later on DG KMTC, Rasheed Mughal, in his presentation briefed about the city's demographic pattern, travel demand trend, JICA study recommendation for transit project and projected cost of infra-structure and various system. DG also informed about the features of RBT system, its components w.s.r to IT infrastructure including signal priority, automated ticketing system, bus information system and command & control system

He further explained that BRTS would be a 22-km route from Dawood Chowrangi to Numaish Chowrangi & Lucky Star via 8000 Road Korangi and FTC. The feasibility and transaction structure of RBTS would enable KMTC, KMC to make an informed decision which shall ensure an affordable, sustainable and replicable system.

The committee also constituted a sub-committee under the chairmanship of DG KMTC for evaluation of the RFQ documents. The meeting was further informed that Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) had prepared a mass transit network for Karachi with 2030 vision suggesting 2 metro system lines and 6 RBT lines, besides KCR revitalisation programme. JICA has also prepared feasibility study of two RBTS lines (Green line-Surjani to Jama Cloth market and red line-model colony to Regal Chowk via Safoora Goth, university road) and pre-facility of blue line from Sohrab Goth to tower.

[deltaone]

EOI tender:

http://www.pprasindh.gov.pk/tenders/13545KMC310712.pdf

[faizanutd]

This has more of a chance of materialising than the circular railway. But the transport mafia will try its best to disrupt it so we should not be too hopeful.

[siamu maharaj]

Originally Posted by Aashiq

You guys think the transport mafia in Karachi is going to let this happen?

No

[brightside.]

I don't care at all for the BRTS. It could improve the public transport experience considerably in Karachi, but I'm not going to get excited until I see a metro train system U/C. Running buses is no big deal, and infact, the failure of Karachi to have decent buses is a matter of shame.

[mwahmed]

This route is very nice..I 'm sure the KMC will not hear anyone in the way of developments.I think they are making the Mass transist project in pieces, they will built the whole but in some process.It is the first route hope they will completely renew this project and forgets the past.

[OmI92]

Nice!
This is the map of BRTS yellow line which i draw on google earth (just estimated).

From Dawood chowrangi, Singer chowrangi, KPT interchange, FTC, Makro, Lucky star, Empress market upto Numaish chowrangi.



Correct me if i am wrong !

[samranali]

why dont we simply go for metro rail. BRTS first in lahore and now karachi , islamabad.

[OmI92]

No! BRTS is not proposed for Islamabad.

[OmI92]

[brightside.]

Originally Posted by lahore88

Guys if any of you have the chance to visit US, youll notice how much americans hate each other when it comes to sports and other superiority complexes. In fact, you cannot go to a sports game with your family because chances are youll get beat up by people from other team. There is a huge revelry between many states in US. For example, people from new york and new jersey constantly make fun of people from texas and arizona etc. Its natural and when I talk !@#$%^&* about karachi, its nothing serious because I love lahore more than karachi and its completely normal. But at the end of the day, if I have to die for karachi, I will because karachi completes my country pakistan. Without karachi, my country is not complete.
PS: Karachi is not the 70s NY lolz pshhhh. Karachi is more like a 1850's new jersey.

What non-sense. There is no chance of violence at an American sports stadium. You are a troll and if any of the regular posters here were mods, you'd have been banned a while ago. You should count yourself lucky that Mehfil Pakistan's mods don't visit regularly so they don't get to your posts before you manage to cause a train wreck almost every single day now.

[fadi rulzzzz]

KESC installs LED lights at Quaid’s mausoleum



KARACHI, Aug. 2: Karachi Electric Supply Company, as a contribution to the national heritage, has successfully converted the interior conventional lights of Mazar Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to the latest LED based lighting technology.

KESC’s CEO Mr.Tabish Gauhar inaugurated the LED lights at the Mazar on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012. Mr. Asif Hussain Siddiqui, Director Energy Conservation Department of KESC; Mr. Mohammad Arif, Resident Engineer, Mazar Management Board; Mian Perwez Akhtar, CEO, New Allied Electronics distributor of LG lighting; were present at the Inauguration Ceremony.

Marking the occassion, the CEO KESC - Mr. Tabish Gauhar penned down his views in the Guest Book of the Mazar - Quaid: "It was indeed a humbling experience for me to visit the mazar of Quaid-e-Azam, my personal hero and role model. Our small contribution in the form of LED's installation inside the mazar is a testament to the deep respect that we have for our great leader. We will continue with our efforts to make Karachi, the city of Quaid, the "City Of Lights"again. Insha Allah

KESC has replaced 256, old/conventional lights inside the tomb and museum with the latest, green-technology based LED lamps. The lighting effect after this transition to the LED's has magnified the grandeur of the national heritage by complimenting the beauty of the mausoleum and bringing out its previously understated effect.

In the first phase, the conventional lamps of the Mazar’s ground floor chandelier, basement chandelier and the museum illumination have been converted to the LED's. The 8.32kW power consumption load of the conventional lighting, has now commendably been reduced to 1.78 kW only, achieving a substantial saving of 79%. The financial impact of the savings from the reduction in power consumption will be more than Rs. 0.4 Million / annum in terms lower Energy Bills. More importantly to note is the fact that LED technology based lights have a far greater useful life, emit no radiation, and are based on the green energy concept with zero carbon foot print, curbing the adverse affects of Global Warming & preserving our Environment.

Furthermore in the second phase which is in progress with KESC’s technical support & the partnership Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board, the entire exterior lighting scheme of the mausoleum will be transformed into Energy Efficient LED new technology.

[KB]

Originally Posted by brightside.

You are a troll and if any of the regular posters here were mods, you'd have been banned a while ago. You should count yourself lucky that Mehfil Pakistan's mods don't visit regularly so they don't get to your posts before you manage to cause a train wreck almost every single day now.

The guy has been brigged...twice...just so he wont say we didn't warn him.


Next time he repeats any of that hatred, its going to be a straight ban. I hope you read this Lahore88 and reconsider your posting habits here.

[insomniac00]

Originally Posted by KB

The guy has been brigged...twice...just so he wont say we didn't warn him.


Next time he repeats any of that hatred, its going to be a straight ban. I hope you read this Lahore88 and reconsider your posting habits here.

if you are one of the mods tghen why dont you go and look at the section of hyderabad where this individual keeps coming and posting garbage too. Why havent you warned him and deleted his posts there. You deleted mine!

you as a mod need to me more active or relieve that post to somebody else who is more capable of the job then you. You if you are a moderator are highly ineffective and incompetant for the job unless proven otherwise.

[KB]

somehow I get the feeling you have missed some posts I was talking about and misunderstood.

Originally Posted by insomniac00

Why havent you warned him and deleted his posts there.

And what exactly is written in my post?

Originally Posted by insomniac00

You deleted mine!

who told you that?