Removal of encroachments from Safoora Chowrangi ordered

Sindh Information and Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on Saturday visited the Red Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route to inspect the heavy machinery being mobilised on the construction site.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has undertaken to finance the project in collaboration with the Sindh government, UN Green Climate Fund (GCF), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

The BRT project has been named as the Karachi Breeze Red Line Project. It is approximately a 29-kilometre-long corridor, extending from Model Colony in Malir in the northeast of the port city to the Mazar-e-Quaid and Jinnah Avenue where it would intersect at Numaish with the Green Line corridor.

The executing company of the Re Line BRT project, Trans Karachi, gave detailed briefing on the shifting of utility lines on the four-kilometre route from Tank Chowk to check post No 6. To this, the transport minister directed the company officials to coordinate with the K-Electric, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and other utility companies to shift the utility lines within a week so that the route could be handed over to Trans Karachi.

He also issued orders for using more heavy machinery so as to speed up work on the clear portion of the section 1 of the project. Later the provincial minister visited the section 2 of the route starting from check post No 6 to Safoora Chowrangi all the way to the Bait-ul-Mukarram Masjid in Gulshan Iqbal on University Road.

Memon inspected the site of underpasses, flyovers and U-turns on the route of the BRT.

He ordered removing encroachments from Safoora Chowrangi in coordination with the District East administration. He directed the construction company of section II to mobilise machinery on the site within two days and accelerate the development work on the route’s parts that were clear.

He said the flow of traffic should not be disturbed during the development work.

Transport Secretary Abdul Haleem Sheikh, Sindh Mass Transit Authority Managing Director Capt (retd) Altaf Hussain Sario, Trans Karachi CEO Wasif Ijlal, Project Consultant Sohail Abidi and others were also present on the occasion.