KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah formally approved the proposal of starting construction work on the first lot of BRT Red Line starting from Malir Halt Depot to Mosmyat for Rs14 billion.
“This is good news for the people of Karachi and I am sure the work would be started on war footings so that it could be completed within two and half years.” This he said on Tuesday while presiding over a meeting of TransKarachi here at CM House. The meeting was attended by Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, PSCM Fayaz Jatoi, Secretary Transport Khalid Shaikh, Mohammad Shaiq Usmani, Rukhsana Rahoojo, VC NED Dr Sarosh Lodhi, CEO of TransKarachi Wasif Jalil and other concerned officers.
The chief minister was told that the Karachi BRT Red Line (KBRT) Project was being implemented with the assistance of ADB and Co-financiers’ including AIIB, AFD and GCF. The total cost of the project is Rs 78384.33 million. TransKarachi is the Implementing Agency for the project.
The KBRT project corridor passes through urban areas of the city originating from Mali Halt and terminating at Tower via Malir Cantonment, Safoora, University Road and Numaish. The Civil Work for KBRT Red Line Infrastructure would be carried out into two LOTS. The LOT-1 (Malir Halt to Masmiyat) and LOT-2 (Mosamiyat to Numaish). The LOT 1 contract was signed on December 8, 2021, with a successful bidder for Rs 14 billion while LOT-2 was signed on January 4, 2022 with the successful bidder of Joint venture (JV) of China Railway and AM Associates for Rs16 billion.
The CM was told that among the various infrastructure related works to be carried out within the project, one of the most important works was relocation of utilities within the BRT corridor of the KBRT project. For this purpose, various utility service providers were consulted during the project design stage. The company is in touch with utility agencies and they were ready to shift their lines from the ROW of the project.
The progress under various components of the project as told to the CM are as follows:
Biogas: The Biogas plant is being planned at the existing abattoir land of 31 acres at the Karachi ‘Bhains Colony’ for the Bio-gas plant on DBO Design, Build and Operate) basis.
The TransKarachi team is engaged on ground for Site Validation / Land Survey with the objectives to identify built-up and open land areas for the abattoir location; to identify location for building periphery, type of building, number of floors in each building, dense tree areas and paved and unpaved areas. The demarcation exercise is being conducted. The work on the first lot would be started in the second week of March for which machinery is being mobilized to Malir Halt.
The BRT Red line is a 25 km corridor which would have ridership of over 300,000 passengers per day. As per plan, 240 buses would be procured for the project and their procurement order would be placed by the end of 2023. The chief minister directed the transport department to start work and inform him so that he could visit the site and witness the progress on the ground.