DHA City to include Mass Transit System

The Corps Commander Karachi Lt Gen Shahid Iqbal has directed the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to get its under-development DHA City project on Super Highway included in the loop of Mass Transit System (MTS) in order to substantially reduce the traveling time from DHA City to metropolis.

The Corps Commander gave these directions while chairing a special meeting of the DHA Karachi’s Executive Board here at Headquarters Corps 5 held the other day to approve the DHA’s development budget for fiscal year 2010-11.

The Executive Board meeting approved a development strategy for DHA to ensure speedy and substantial infrastructure development of the Defence Authority’s phase-VIII and other ongoing development works in DHA. Early completion of DHA City Karachi project within the stipulated timeline was also an important feature of the envisaged strategy.

Corps Commander at the meeting stressed on the need to revive the Hospital project in DHA Phase-VIII for provision of a top-of-the-line medical facility and subsequently the establishment of a medical College for the welfare and wellbeing of the DHA’s residents and citizens of Karachi.

Director Finance DHA informed the meeting that a record amount of Rs 4.3 billion, including Rs. 2.6 billion for Phase-VIII development has been earmarked in the budget for undertaking multifaceted development works in the Housing Authority.

A sum of Rs 1.25 billion has been separately earmarked for master planning and other development works of DHA City Karachi for this year.

The Board was further informed that recovery of refurbishment charges from the DHA residents was must to ensure speedy and uninterrupted development of DHA Phase-VIII as per the stipulated schedule.

News about Lahore Mass Transit in Hasb-e-Haal: Ironic

Truth about LRMTS discussed in Hasb-e-Haal ......... Ironic

http://www.dunyanews.tv/play_program_video_eng.php?id=13796&pid=3330

‘Affordable Transport facilities needed for Karachi City’

Urban planners and experts stressed on the need for providing respectable and affordable public transport and mass transit facilities to people in Karachi on the pattern of modern cities all across the world.

The experts shared this opinion in a seminar ‘Transport Sector and Land Management in Karachi’, organised by the NGO Shehri-CBE in collaboration with Friedrich Naumann Foundation, here at a local hotel on Friday.

People from different walks of life including policymakers, government functionaries, Mass Transit Cell authorities and public transport representatives attended the seminar to discuss the issues and possible solutions for providing better commuting facilities to the citizens in future.

An impressive presentation was given by Managing Director Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC), Ijaz Khilji, who told the participants that the 44-kilometers long Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) is expected to be revived by 2014.

“The project will be completed with a cost of 1553 million US dollars, most of which would be provided by the JICA. The project would provide transport facilities to 0.6 million to nearly 2 million people per day,” he informed.

Khilji said that some studies for the revival of KCR are underway while most of them have already been completed with the help of international agencies. “Upon its completion, the project would provide respectable and affordable traveling facilities to people within the city,” he said.

“Around 5500 households would be resettled from 28 localities that are established on railway lands. Every affected family would be provided Rs. 50000 and an 80 yards plot for resettlement. After the completion of the project, KUTC will become a regulatory body like NEPRA and it would have a committee to decide the fares that would be compatible to the existing public transport fares,” he informed.

Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI) Chairman Irshad Hussain Bukhari mainly discussed the issues faced by transporters in Karachi. “Despite rampant corruption, torture, burning of busses on almost daily basis and killings of drivers’/conductors, transporters are providing affordable transportation facilities to people,” he said.

He acknowledged that there were issues including poor condition of buses and attitude of transport operators. “There is no leasing facility available for the transporters to bring new vehicles on the roads nor is there any facility of providing training to drivers and conductors,” he explained.

Bukhari said that corruption was rampant in traffic police and other departments associated with the transport sector. He suggested for the revival of magistrate system in the transport sector so that drivers who violate traffic laws could be sent to jails for the offences committed by them.

He also called for reopening of the drivers’ training school located at Manghopir so that drivers and conductors could be provided mandatory one-month training before coming onto the roads.

Bukhari also called for provision of loans from commercial banks to transporters so that they could bring CNG busses on roads and also suggested that government should provide them the depots of defunct KTC on rent to resolve parking issues.

EDO Transport of City District Government Karachi (CDGK) Iftikhar Qaimkhani called for an integrated mass transit system in the city. “There are 2.2 million vehicles plying on city roads, of which only 5 per cent were public transport vehicles that cater to the needs of 70 per cent population. Private vehicles especially cars and motorcycles form the major portion of vehicles plying on the roads but they only cater to the transportation needs of 30 per cent people in the city,” he said.

Qaimkhani also discussed the issue of inter-city busses including bus terminals for these vehicles as well CNG buses. “Without having an integrated mass transit system comprising of Bus Rapid Transit, Light Rail Transit and KCR, transportation issues in Karachi cannot be redressed,” he said.

Urban planner and member of Shehri-CBE, Farhan Anwar and General Secretary Shehri-CBE, Amber Alibhai, also spoke on the occasion. The seminar was followed by a question-answer session in which participants raised several questions regarding the present and future transport strategies and issues in the city.

Canadian Company Bombardier Discusses LRMTS with CM Punjab

A delegation of a Canadian company, Bombardier, met Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat here on Wednesday and discussed matters regarding the improvement of transport system, Lahore Mass Rapid Transit System and devastations of flood.

Provincial Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa, Chairman Planning & Development Javed Aslam, Secretary Finance Tariq Bajwa and Kh. Ahmad Hassan were also present. Talking to the delegation, the chief minister said that the provision of quality, comfortable and best transport facilities to the people was the top priority of the government and solid steps were being taken for the purpose. He said that Mass Rapid Transit System was planned in 1998 and a lot of work had been carried out on the project. Unfortunately, the project was deferred after the democratic was toppled on October 12, 1999.

He said that the Punjab government was serious about the project and it had discussed the matter with various companies. Unfortunately, Pakistan was facing devastations of the worst kind of flood of its history which had ruined the country’s economy. He said that Metro Train was being run successfully in China, Tehran and Mashhad.

Transportation Division of Bombardier president Mikkelsen said that Lahore was a beautiful city and he had reviewed its transport system.

The delegation included Senior Director Business Division (British) Thomas Townson and Senior Vice President (Asia Pacific - British) David Allen. .

Karachi Transport Master Plan: JICA presents Progress Report to Technical Body

KARACHI (October 07 2010): Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) has completed surveys in 18 towns of Karachi under the first ever 'Transport Master Plan' of the city. About 40,000 residents from 18 towns and six cantonment boards participated in the survey. According to sources, the Japanese team, which has been working on the master plan for the last one year, presented its progress report to the technical committee of Sindh Government on Wednesday.

The report was presented by Minoru Shibuya, Japanese team's head in a meeting of the committee, headed by Managing Director Karachi Mass Transit Cell Malik Zaheer. The meeting was attended by experts and officials of various departments including Finance Department, Planning and Development, Civil Aviation, KPT, Port Qasim, DHA, Military Land Cantonments, Traffic Police, Population Department, Pakistan Railways, and City District Government Karachi (CDGK).

The representatives of the departments hailed the work and progress of the JICA team. The study under 'Transport Improvement Project' would be completed within two years, which would be the first tranport-related master plan of any city of the country.

Sources said the study, would facilitate the preparation of 'Karachi Transport Master Plan 2030'. Besides, it would validate the transport project identified in the Karachi Development Strategic Plan-2020 (the transport section of Karachi Master Plan). It is worth mentioning here that for the last 62 years, no master plan of transportation has ever been prepared for any city of Pakistan and it is for the fist time that a complete planning for at least 20 years is being made for Karachi.