More feeder routes of BRT to go functional soon

PESHAWAR: Claiming that more feeder routes of BRT would go functional soon, a spokesperson for the executing company of the project said on Thursday a special team of experts had been formed to probe the causes behind the blaze at the bus near the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) Bus Station in Hayatabad a day earlier.

Trans Peshawar spokesperson Alamgir Bangash told The News that the bus had caught fire near the PDA Bus Station No-28 in Hayatabad at 9:11pm. “The service was on hold for a short time and the situation was brought under control within 19 minutes when it was reopened for public at 9:30pm,” he went on to add. The spokesperson said that the compartment of batteries caught fire due to a spark. “Rescue 1122 team reached the spot and helped extinguish the fire,” he added.

A team of experts, he added, had been constituted to investigate the causes of the spark that resulted in a fire that damaged the bus. “We have also requested the bus company to send a team to help in the investigation. Currently, we only know that a spark in the compartment caused the fire but full understanding of the situation would be possible after the investigation,” Alamgir Bangash said. He said the report would be made public after the investigation team submits it to the TransPeshawar.

The BRT, the spokesperson said, had been launched for the public service and there was no plan of putting it on hold. The buses could develop faults but TransPeshawar have on-call teams to handle such incidents. “We have technical teams and evacuation plans and are fully prepared to tackle such incidents. The TransPeshawar would not reduce the buses on the corridor and would take every step to facilitate the passengers,” he claimed.

Alamgir Bangash said the TransPeshawar have alternative plans to keep the service operational if such incidents happen, said, adding that if a bus developed fault it would be replaced to keep the service functional. He said testing of the remaining two feeder routes, one from Shah Alam Pul to Kohat Adda and the other from Chamkani to Pishtakhara Chowk, would start within two days while it is expected that the routes would be operational in two to three weeks.

“With operationalisation of these five feeder routes, the first plan of the feeder service would complete,” he said. However, he said, the TransPeshawar can make plans for other feeder routes if the government directed for further expansion of the project. Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information Kamran Bangash had said that a small incident with BRT bus in Hayatabad had been dealt with in a professional manner by the TransPeshawar. He advised the public to disregard the rumours against the BRT service.