Karachi Green Line buses ferry one million commuters in first month

KARACHI: Karachi’s Green Line BRT has completed its first month of official operations on Thursday and according to official figures more than one million passengers had travelled on 80 buses through the dedicated corridor.

According to official figures provided by Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (SIDCL), a total of 1,093,000 passengers had travelled on Green Line BRT without any break from January 10 to February 9.

The official data shows that on average 35,000 people commuted on 80 buses of the BRT project on weekdays and the number sometimes swelled to 50,000 during weekends.

The Green Line bus service had become fully operational from Jan 10, with 80 buses covering a track of 21 kilometers from 6 in the morning till 10 at night. The buses arrive at the station after every three minutes.

Recently, stones had been pelted at the newly-inaugurated Green Line bus service in Karachi at multiple points between Surjani and Numaish areas of the city.

The stones were pelted from the pedestrian bridge and damaged the infrastructure of buses,” they said adding that however no passenger was hurt in the incidents.

STONES PELTED AT MULTIPLE POINTS OF GREEN LINE BUS SERVICE

The Green Line project

Karachi’s Green Line BRT project with intersections is 22 km long which includes 12.7 km elevated, 10.9 km at grade, and 422 meters underground, and has 25 stations.

The phase-II common corridor from Gurumandir up to Municipal Park with a length of 2.5 km has two underpasses at M.A Jinnah Road.

The project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan on December 25, 2021 while former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had performed its groundbreaking back in 2016.