Karachi's Green and Orange Lines project will become operational by Nov: minister

KARACHI: Sindh Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah said on Tuesday that Green and Orange Lines Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) will become operational by October 2021, ARY News reported.

Speaking in ARY News program Bakhabar Savera, the minister said that tender for buses has been issued and 100 buses for Green and Orange Lines will arrive by the end of September or October 2021.

Rejecting the statement made by Planning Minister Asad Umar regarding operational of the Green Line BRT project by August this year, Awais Qadir said that the federal minister knows nothing about the project as buses will not arrive before October.

“Federal government should procure more buses as 80 buses for Green Line BRT project are not enough,” he said while talking with ARY News.

It should be noted that while the federal government initiated the Green Line project, the Orange Line is supposed to be a Sindh government scheme. Under the original arrangement, the Centre was only responsible for developing the route for the Green Line, while the Sindh government was to procure buses and run operations for both the Green and Orange lines.

Gree Line BRT

The BRT Green Line project with intersections has a 24 km long route, which includes 12.7 km elevated, 10.9 km at grade, and 422 meters underground route, 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 state-of-art underground bus terminal with a parking facility and the commercial mezzanine floor has been constructed at Numaish.

The construction work on Phase-I was started in 2016.