'Karachi's Red Line project will be completed within two years'

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Transport, Sharjeel Inam Memon, has assured the ADB delegation of the provincial government’s full support and cooperation in completing the Red Line infrastructure within 24 months.

Sharjeel Memon, who also holds the portfolio of Information, held a meeting with the ADB delegation on Wednesday to discuss bottlenecks in the Red Line project.

The delegation agreed to hold weekly Zoom meetings on the project to review progress of development work. The minister assured the delegation that there would be no delays on the part of the provincial government in completing the project.

The minister noted that the Red Line was a biogas project which the provincial government wanted to be successful so that it could be replicated in Hyderabad and other major cities of the province.

KARACHI: CONSTRUCTION WORK ON RED LINE BRT BEGINS

Memon also assured that he would personally look into the transfer of 32 acres of land for a biogas plant for the project.

Lloyed Wright informed the minister that the Red Line project was environment-friendly and totally different from other BRTs, including Green Line, Yellow Line and Orange Line.

Red Line BRT

The Sindh government recently started construction work on Karachi’s Red Line BRT project, according to Trans Karachi – the operator of Karachi Breeze System.

In the first phase, the route from Tank Chowk near Malir Halt to Safoora Chowrangi will be completed.

The Red Line will span 26 km from Safoora to Tower. It is expected to have an average daily ridership of 625,000 passengers.

The route of the 26-kilometer BRT Red Line project will connect Model Colony to Johar Complex en route Jinnah Avenue and Malir Cantt while the buses will run through University Road, Hassan Square and Numaish roundabout.

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24 stations would be constructed on this line which will run from Malir Halt to Numaish via Model Colony, Safoora Goth, King Cottages, Met Office, NED University, Safari Park, Nipa, Urdu University, Masjid Baitul Mukarram, Civic Centre, Askari Park, Dawood University and Society Office.

A biogas plant will be installed on a 31-acre land in Bhens Colony area of Karachi, which will be used for fulfilling the fuel needs of the bus service.

The $504 million Karachi Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line project is sponsored by the Government of Sindh, with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and co-financiers, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the French Agency for Development (AFD), and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).