On the slow track

Only weeks after the last deadline for the opening of Peshawar’s much touted Bus Rapid Transit project, spread over 26 kilometres in the city, was missed due to non-completion of infrastructure and problems with the track itself, there has been a further slowdown in the completion of the Rs68 billion project. While the provincial government has not announced a date, it has been learnt that work on bus stations and the Intelligence Ticketing Systems control room remains pending and is unlikely to be completed before October this year. It thus seems probable that there will be no inauguration of the project until the end of this year. It should be noted that since the project was launched in October 2017, under then chief minister Pervez Khattak, five deadlines have already been missed, with the KP chief minister and Imran Khan failing to launch the project in March this year.

What is even more disturbing are reports that persons whose businesses had been shifted to accommodate the project have not been paid. To protest this, the Peshawar Qaumi Jirga, a non-political association of political parties, labour groups, religious organisations and civil society associations, has indicated it may be planning a protest. Such a protest may be supported by many of Peshawar’s residents, given the traffic congestion and disruption in daily life due to building work caused by work on the BRT which runs through some of the city’s busiest commercial areas. The project involves 220 buses to run along a designated track; 50 of these buses have already arrived in Peshawar, and 20 more are on their way from Karachi. There is concern over where they are to be parked, with the project still a long way away from becoming functional. Contractors are also claiming that huge sums of money which should have been paid to them have not been cleared.

The fiasco concerning the BRT has now continued for years. It puts into question the planning of the project as well as the manner in which it was implemented. Claims that buses will not be able to pass each other along some parts of the track, as the space is too limited, are being heard again. The project was intended to meet the urgent requirement of Peshawar’s residents for an efficient mass transit system. Sadly, it appears that even now we are barely closer to seeing this grow into operation than we were in March, when an inquiry committee noted huge flaws with the project, which has been a cornerstone in the PTI government’s claims to good governance in KP. We hope for the sake of residents, vendors, businessmen and contractors that the buses are able to move soon along the track. The indications that this will not happen for many months are, however, a serious point of concern and draw attention to the need to ensure that more careful evaluation involving all stakeholders is put in place before undertaking works that involve massive construction work and huge public expenditure.