Minister takes newsmen forBRT test drive

PESHAWAR: Provincial Information Minister and spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government Shaukat Yousafzai on Friday took the journalists on a test drive in three buses of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to show them the scale of work carried out on the BRT corridor so far.

The minister gave the ride to the media persons a day before March 23 fixed earlier as the date for the ‘soft opening of the project.

The test drive started at the western end of the corridor in Hayatabad and ended at its eastern end at Chamkani. The minister-journalists convoy stopped over two stations on the corridor where the civil and other works were partially completed. The minister talked to the journalists riding two of the three BRT buses with him about the formal opening and other issues around the most-publicized project.

Shaukat said the “soft opening” is just test drive during which 21 buses available with the company operating the system would be run on the corridor. He said after the test drive to the journalists they would also facilitate similar rides for children and women if they wished so.

About the formal opening of the project, he said the civil work on the project had been completed and the IT-related tasks, including Intelligence Transportation System (ITS), would soon be completed. And after the completion of the project in all respects, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan would formally inaugurate it.

The minister said that they had never given any date for the project inauguration. Former chief minister Pervez Khattak had announced during the ground-breaking of the project that it would be completed in the six months, he said and added that there were widespread rains for the last one month that delayed the timely completion of the project.

Some important work remained incomplete due to the month-long rains, which is being completed piecemeal, he informed and added that they had 21 buses and the rest would soon arrive after which complete transit service would be carried out.

To a question, he said that the chief minister was happy with the pace of work on the project and they were proud of the project. “It is a flagship project of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. It has brought a huge investment to provincial metropolis. What others gave to the city after ruling the province for decades? Who else invested in this city in the past? Shaukat posed a question. “No one invested in the city the way the PTI is doing. Only “failed” people are criticising this public utility project, which would benefit the poor of the province the most,” the minister said. The masses have offered a lot during the construction of the corridor and they would soon get the unprecedented transportation facility, Shaukat expressed the hope. The traffic flow has been restored and people would no more face any nuisance while using the roads along the corridor, he further said. Criticising the tirade against the project, he said that some people had been trying to make the Rs66.6 billion project disputed for ulterior motives. The civil work on 27 kilometers (km) corridor of the project cost only Rs29 billion which is the lowest of the amount spent on similar projects in Punjab, the government spokesperson said. Secretary Transport Kamran Rehman, director general Peshawar Development Authority Israrul Haq, officials of the TransPeshawar and others were also present on the occasion.