For Karachi:
Survey completed for corridors ‘Bus Rapid Transit System’
KARACHI: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has completed the survey of two corridors of Karachi for Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), including the corridors from SurjaniTown to Tower and from Safoora Goth to Regal Chowk via Preedy Street.
A JICA delegation in this connection called on AdministratorKarachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Muhammad Hussain Syed in hisoffice on Saturday, said a statement.
The Administrator was given a briefing on the mass transitsystem especially the survey conducted for implementation of bus rapidtransit system in Karachi.
He was informed that besides these two corridors survey of morecorridors in the city was also underway speedily and would be completed by June 2012.
The JICA experts stressed the need of bringing improvement in thetraffic management system on bus rapid transit corridors and removalof encroachments and illegal vehicle parking areas alongside thesetracks.
It was said that bus rapid transit system was runningsuccessfully in other densely populated cities of the world and nowthe time has come to begin work on mass transit system as a solutionto traffic and transport related problems in Karachi.
Muhammad Hussain Syed said that the KMC with the cooperation fromJapanese Government is trying to seek an early solution of the transport problems in the city and the JICA recommendations will certainly be considered in this regard.
He said a separate institution will be needed while taking onboard the regional transport authority, Government of Sindh, KMC,traffic police and JICA representatives for formulating policy,planning and designing, implementation of this project and theoperation and financial management.
Survey completed for corridors
For Punjab Province of Pakistan:
CM Shahbaz Sharif, along with his His Excellency, Dr. Kadir Topbas, formally launched the Bus Rapid Transit System in Lahore earlier today.
This trend-setting initiative of the CM Punjab is aimed at introducing a dedicated lane for buses providing safe, comfortable, reliable, affordable, environment friendly and efficient public transport, to start with, in the provincial capital. The project is soon to be extended to other major cities of the Punjab.
The project will insha'Allah prove instrumental in controlling the ever-increasing traffic congestion in the city and improving the road traffic, besides making better the environmental situation.