KARACHI: Pasban Democratic Party Chairman Altaf Shakoor has expressed deep concern over the inconvenience caused to drivers and commuters due to the months-long dug-up University Road and demanded the government to accelerate the long-standing project of Red Line Bus Rapid Transit.

He said travelling on the University Road is extremely inconvenient as the road is broken at many places due to delays in Red Line BRT. He said with the completion of this project, the busy University Road will be fully reopened and the long traffic jam in this area of Karachi will finally end.

He asked that more manpower should be added to continue work in three shifts to complete this BRT project early.

The federal government is going to hand over the Green Line BRT to the Sindh government in December. The second section of Green Line from Mazar-e-Quaid to Tower should be started as soon as possible, he said.

All roadside encroachments including those on University Road should be removed on an immediate and sustainable basis. All BRT projects in Karachi should be interconnected so that passengers can travel from one part of the megacity to another easily and save time.

PDP Chairman asked that KCR and other government sector transport projects are delayed beyond their schedule. This delay is not only increasing the cost to them but also innocent citizens are suffering.

He said while BRT projects are being worked on, the basic transport system, Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) in put on the back burner. There were reports that the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) would be launched through the CPEC but the government has been silent on the fate of the KCR for a long time. Without a rail-based transport system, Karachi’s public transport problems cannot be completely solved. All the major cities of the world have surface and underground railway systems but not in Karachi.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024