Peshawar BRT to cost low than Lahore bus project: Shaukat Yousafzai

PESHAWAR: Minister for Information Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Shaukat Yousafzai on Friday announced that the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project would be made functional by April this year, ARY NEWS reported.

“We will complete the project in March and it would cost Rs 35 billion,” he said adding that despite being a third-generation project, it has cost low as compared to the Lahore BRT project which cost upto Rs 40 billion in 2011.

The other construction to be made within the BRT premises including a commercial plaza and other building structures would add Rs 35 billion more to the BRT Peshawar cost, making it a project of Rs 70 billion,” he said.

We have directed to release four billion more for the project in order to ensure that work on the project is not halted, he said.

He further said that they had purchased buses worth upto Rs 8.5 billion to be run on the BRT track.

On February 04, the provincial information minister said that 50 buses are available at the corridor.

Read More: BRT Peshawar to be completed by March 2020, says Shaukat Yousafzai 

The minister said training of the staff and drivers of the project is currently underway and the provincial government would be able for a test run of the project in April.

Replying to a query, Shuakat Yousafzai said, the government assured Supreme Court for the completion of the project in June as a precautionary measure in case of any delay.

The Supreme Court had stopped the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from probing alleged irregularities in the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project.