Damaged manhole keeps BRT Peshawar service suspended

PESHAWAR: There is no way escaping for the BRT Peshawar which remains in the news for all the wrong reasons. It happened again on Friday as a damaged manhole suspended the service on one of the tracks.

Although the service resumed after more than 30 minutes during which the manhole was repaired long lines of buses were witnessed at the Tehkal bus station as passengers remained stuck in these vehicles.

Unfortunately the BRT Peshawar is getting the wrong publicity amid several incidents in which the buses developed faults stranding the passengers on the track. But the latest episode raises at least one serious question why a manhole on the track was damaged and required repair four months after the inauguration amid the corruption allegations due to the delay and cost escalation to the tune of billions. Earlier the service was suspended in September just after a month its inauguration of August 14 by Prime Minister Imran Khan after at least four buses caught fire. However the project reopened for people after a more than five week long break during the faulty items were replaced and some new ones installed.

Last month the social media was abuzz with the poor BRT Peshawar service after another bus developed some fault and stopped on the middle of the dedicated track near the Abdara station on University Road.

Given that there was no one to carry the bus it were the passengers at least some of them who started pushing the vehicle triggering a series of comments and memes on Twitter and other social media platforms. In this scenario PML N Vice President Maryam Nawaz never misses an opportunity to mention in her speeches and press conferences that the BRT Peshawar is just like the PTI government requiring people to push it for being functional.