Japan to help build Peshawar Mass Transit System

ISLAMABAD: While Japan on Wednesday signed project assistance of $1.79 million for women specific transport sector project for Peshawar, the PTI led government unveiled its plan to finalise metro project for the provincial capital under title of Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project which was expected to be completed within next one and half year period by 2018.

“We are developing mass transit transport system for KPK and the feasibility study for first BRT for Peshawar will be completed within next six months while this project will become operational by 2018,” Provincial Secretary Transport and Mass Transit Department KPK Zubair Asghar Qureshi told a select group of reporters on late Tuesday night.

Under this project, the donors’ representative told media in background briefing on late Tuesday night that Japan would provide financing for procuring 14 dedicated buses for women in Peshawar in the first phase in order to cater to their requirements as 10 percent commuters are women out of one million in the provincial capital of the KP. This project will be run for 12 months. Only women and kids up to 12 years of age will be allowed to avail this facility. The administrative cost of this project will be standing at around 10 percent and 90 percent of the allocated amount will be spent on materialising this project on the ground. Only male drivers will be hired at initial stage but the efforts will be made to train female drivers at later stages.

According to announcement made bY Japanese Embassy here on Wednesday, Japan and the UNOPS Country Office in Pakistan have signed a UNOPS pilot project aimed at development of a women specific transport service in selected districts of KP Province. 

High officials from the Economics Affairs Division, Planning Commission of Pakistan and Department of Transport KP were present on the occasion along with UN Resident Coordinator and heads of other UN agencies and representatives of foreign missions and donor agencies. 

The envisaged project is to be implemented by UNOPS Pakistan Office in partnership with the KPK Transport Department and UN WOMEN through the financial support of the Government of Japan. In total, the generous contribution of the Japanese government for the duration of the project will amount to about 191 million JPY (Approximately 1.79 Million US$). 

During his opening address Resident Coordinator UN Mr. Neil Buhne underlined that “Public transportation is the cheapest and practical route adopted by the women to access their work places or colleges or universities, but, travelling with the fear of harassment and having to face it every day brings down their productivity drastically. The introduction of “Women Bus Service” is an initiative taken to make women feel safe, secured and comfortable when travelling.  These buses aim at protecting women during travel and reducing the risk of being a potential victim. The project will pilot 14 buses in 3 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK); Peshawar, Mardan and Abbottabad.”

During his speech Mr. Muhammad Haider Reza, Director a. i. UNOPS Pakistan highlighted the fact that “sexual harassment of women is not limited to the workplace. It can and does occur when a woman leaves home for work or studies. Working women and female students experience sexual harassment from men working as drivers and conductors/ticket collectors in public transport.  

Mr. Jamshed M. Kazi Country Representative UN WOMEN emphasized that “The introduction of women-only buses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a simple idea with potentially transformative results for women’s empowerment. 

Mr. Zubair Asghar Qureshi, Provincial Secretary Transport and Mass Transit Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa thanked the Government of Japan, UNOPS and UN WOMEN for supporting this initiative. “It gives me great pleasure to be here and witness the start of a major initiative that gives due credit to the most important part of our society, the Feminine Gender. 

His Excellency, Mr. Takashi Kurai, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Japan emphasized “This project will contribute towards the socio-economic empowerment and development of women by providing them with a safer and affordable means of travel.