Karachi: Test run of Orange Line BRT begins

KARACHI: The test run of Abdul Sattar Edhi (Orange Line) Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) began on a 4-km route from Orangi Town to Jinnah University for Women, Nazimabad, ARY News reported.

The service was supposed to be launched last month but faced delays due to incomplete structure.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon, who also holds a portfolio of Transport, had set a May 30 deadline for the completion of the project.

Test drive of orange line bus service has begun from today #KarachiWorks pic.twitter.com/ufafFTGEST

— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) June 22, 2022

Delays

The Sindh government could not meet the deadline of May 30 for the operational launch of Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project being constructed under the provincial administration

The Orange Line corridor has a total of 11 elevators, out of which development work has been completed for nine of them. There are 10 accelerators, of which 9 accelerators have been installed while work on one is still in progress, according to reports.

The Sindh government has shifted all the 20 buses of Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to the federal government’s Green Line BRT depot in Surjani Town as its depot near Bananas Chowk was yet to be completed, it is learnt.

Orange Line BRT project

The Orange Line bus project was launched by former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah in June 2016 to facilitate about 50,000 residents of Orangi Town.

FIVE YEARS ON, NO SIGN OF KARACHI’S ORANGE LINE BRT COMPLETION

The Orange Line bus project will cover a distance of four kilometres from the Orangi Municipal Office to Matriculation Board Chowrangi. A total of 20 buses would run under this system.

The project, which was dedicated to late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, was supposed to be completed within a year since its groundbreaking in 2016.