Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed Transport Department to conduct Environment Assessment of BRT Blue Line so that the project could be started through Public Private Partnership (PPP). This he said while presiding over a meeting on BRT Blue Line here at the CM House on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by Minister Transport Syed Nasir Shah, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Secretary Transport Saeed Awan, DG Mass Transit Mohammad Athar and various others.
The BRT was initially planned to be about 48 km long and had been aligned from Gurumandir to Bahria Town via Teenhatti, Liaquatabad No.10, Shahrah-e-Pakistan, Sohrab Goth and M-9 and additionally connecting Jinnah International Airport via M.M. Alam Road to Bahria Town. As per plan, the BRT Blue Line would share the route with BRT Green Line from Gurumandir to Merewether Tower.
While the various BRT projects have been taken up, the Government of Sindh has received an unsolicited proposal for development of BUS Rapid Transit System Blue Line convertible to MRT in line with the JICA's recommendations in Public Private Partnership mode.
The Unsolicited Proposal comprised of concept design of BRT Blue Line, technical details, project cost summaries, financing plan and financial model. The Sindh government has appointed an advisory consortium to validate the revised concept paper.
The overall route and infrastructure of the BRT Blue Line, and accordingly the financial and legal structure of the project have been changed based on the meetings held under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister. According to the evaluation done by the consultants, airport link is to be deferred and BRT buses will be running in mixed traffic on M-9.
Transport & Mass Transit Department (TMTD) has taken approval from the Chief Minister to develop the infrastructure component in traditional mode and develop PC-1 for the same. Following the submission of PC-1, the technical committee reviewed the document and suggested modification. Subsequently, the modified PC-1 of Rs 18 Billion was sent to P&D Department by addressing the observations highlighted by technical committee.
Recently, TMTD has received an Unsolicited Proposal in August 2017 from consortium of EA Consulting for development of Infrastructure for 9.8 km under PPP mode. Murad Ali Shah directed the P&D and TMTD to submit their detailed recommendations and arrange briefing so that it could be taken up.