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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Green Line busway enters final stage, says governor

By our correspondents
November 23, 2017

The Green Line busway of the Karachi Metrobus project has entered its final stage and would be completed by April or May next year, Sindh’s governor announced on Wednesday.


Mohammad Zubair was talking to the media during his tour of different parts of the city, especially District Central, to inspect various development projects under way with the federal government’s support.


Zubair said a plan was being implemented to transform Karachi into a modern city, adding that an effective system of mass transportation would be launched with the completion of the Green Line busway.


He said the people of the city had been facing transport-related issues because of high population density, as the available means of mass transportation were much less, while the roads had to cater to vehicles much more than their capacity.


The governor said it was the foremost preference of the government to provide basic necessities and facilities of life to the people, as in this regard the inspection of ongoing development projects should be done from time to time to ensure their timely completion.


Zubair said the federal government had recently announced Rs25 billion special development package for the city so that the people could be provided with the maximum benefits regarding civic facilities after the restoration of law and order.


He said that under the special development package, Rs2.588 billion had been allocated for the restoration and re-development of Manghopir Road, whereas Rs860 million had been reserved for the 6.7km Nishtar Road.


The governor said that other mega development projects costing Rs50 billion were also under way with the federal government’s support, including the Lyari Expressway, the K-IV water scheme and the Green Line busway.


Zubair said he had met the city mayor the previous day in connection with the Karachi package for whose implementation the basic ground work had been completed.


He said the metropolis had undergone a miraculous change in the past four years, as major crimes had been overcome, adding that the city was considered the most dangerous until 2013, as investors were unwilling to visit it, but now the hotels were packed to their full capacity.


When he was asked if procurement of buses for the Green Line project had been delayed due to the provincial government, the governor said the administration had published advertisements inviting offers for the bus operation but did not receive an encouraging response, adding that the government would try again.


He hoped that the government would be able to procure buses by the time the Green Line project was completed. He said that one of the reasons for the delay was due to extension in the length of the project towards the city centre twice.


He directed the relevant authorities to ensure ample provisions for the regular operation of the public transport service along the under-construction route of the Green Line busway to facilitate the commuters.


He also informed the media that China’s state-owned Shanghai Electric Power Company Limited would soon take control of the privatised K-Electric. He said the new management would utilise the KE’s system to the best of its capacity for providing electricity to the metropolis. He said the incoming private management of the power utility had made a commitment of investing $9 billion for improving the infrastructure of electricity in the city.


Meeting with KBA


People have been reaping the benefits of the Karachi operation, as the city has come a long way from the time when it could be shut down within 10 minutes, said the governor.


Addressing the members of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) at the city courts, Zubair said the metropolis was once declared the most dangerous city by an international magazine, but now it had turned quite peaceful.


He said that when Nawaz Sharif, the now deposed prime minister, came into power in 2013, he decided within a month to launch an operation against terrorists and criminals to restore peace in Karachi, which at present was rightly considered a model city.


Nawaz took all the stakeholders into confidence before the Karachi operation was initiated, which is why the government succeeded in restoring peace in the most literal sense, he added.


The governor also appreciated the role of the Supreme Court, saying that it had made very good decisions in different matters, including in the case of Panamagate.


Zubair said that majority of the Pakistanis had not accepted the verdict in the Panama case, but the government had respected the decision and replaced the PM within three days, adding that the judiciary and the media were working freely without any pressure.


Referring to some court decisions, he said: “Once in General [Khalid Mahmud] Arif’s era, the then chief justice had claimed to have written a verdict that was changed later in the night.”


He stressed that even though several major incidents had taken place in the country, such as the attack on GHQ and Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the then governments had not launched any operation. “Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched in 2014 when Nawaz was in power.”


He argued that disqualification of an elected and sitting premier had negatively impacted Pakistan’s economy, saying that the same PM had succeeded in bringing a huge investment to the country. “For the first time in history, two countries agreed on a 62-billion-dollar investment.”


He termed the CPEC project a great development that was going to bring positive changes in Pakistan. He also underlined the government’s efforts to overcome the energy crisis, saying that PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi would inaugurate a power house in Karachi on November 29.


Earlier, KBA President Naeem Qureshi and General Secretary Khalid Nawaz Marwat had welcomed the governor. Qureshi and Marwat paid rich tributes to Zubair, who had visited the KBA for the first time.


The governor told them that he had never addressed lawyers at any forum and was glad to finally do so. He informed them that he had also participated in the lawyers’ movement for the reinstatement of the then chief justice of Pakistan.