Design related BRTS - Update

Sabir Khan Sadozai, the project director for the Muslim Town flyover, said that the repair of the service roads had initially been delayed because the Water and Sanitation Agency had to lay a sewage line. Then the Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (TEPA) stopped the repairs as the final design of the elevated bus lane for the Metro Bus Service, being drawn up by the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (NESPAK), had not arrived. “Otherwise we could have had a situation where we finished the reconstruction of the road but TEPA had to break sections of it again to lay piers for the elevated bus lane,” he said.

Sadozai said that the design of the bus lane had been received from NESPAK last week and they had started the road works. He said that WASA still had some work to finish, namely to raise the height of gutter necks on Wahdat Road and Ferozepur Road so that the manholes were at the same level as the road. He said that work on the service lane around FC College and the 1122 office would be finished in a few days. He said some sections of the road would not be repaired until after the bus lane is finished.

Asked why the design of the bus lane for the MBS project had been changed and delayed, TEPA Director Mazhar Hussain, who is in charge of the construction, said that the decision had been made to avoid the expense and hassle of having to acquire land for a ground-level bus lane.

Green Card scheme for Students to launch in 6 more cities

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Monday that the Student Green Card Scheme, launched in Lahore, had been started to provide affordable travelling facilities to students.

He said the scheme would be launched in six more cities from the first week of August.

He was presiding over a meeting held with regard to the Student Green Card Scheme on Monday. Special Assistant Zaeem Hussain Qadri, Lahore Transport Company chairman Khawaja Ahmed Hassan, Punjab Information Technology Board Chairman Dr Omer Saif, Higher Education and Schools secretaries and other officers attended the meeting.

The chief minister said the Punjab government was pursuing a comprehensive strategy for providing education facilities and equipping students with education.

He said launching the Green Card Scheme for providing concessionary travelling facilities to students was a step in this direction. He said after Lahore, Student Green Card Schemes would be launched in Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Bahawalpur in August. He directed that a plan with regard to launching Green Card Schemes, fixing fares, provision of buses and their routes be submitted to him within two days.

The chief executive officer of Lahore Transport Company said as many as 28,000 students had gone to the website on the first day of the launch of the scheme. He said the district government would also issue cards in other cities.

He said, initially, the Lahore Transport Company would print 50 cards for each city while the district government would print the remaining green cards. He said students wanting a green card should submit their application forms at their colleges.

The colleges will send these forms to the concerned DCO office, he said.

The DCO’s office will send the cards back to the colleges from where the students can pick them up.

He said the Punjab Information Technology Board will launch a website for the convenience of students of other districts.

Diesel-run BRTS may turn a public nightmare

Plying diesel-run buses on the dedicated track, most of it elevated, in one of the most polluted portions of the city is expected to invite criticism from the public, sections of which are already resisting acquisition of land for the project.

The authorities at the helm of affairs have already succumbed to the pressure by the Ferozepur Road traders who had said a big ‘No’ to the idea of sharing their land for the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) track that was to be built in the middle of the thoroughfare. In view of the refusal, the authorities have now planned to extend the elevated track from Ferozepur Road’s canal inter-section to Bhati instead of the earlier Qartaba Chowk to Bhati Gate area.

The plan to use the Government College University (GCU) property for the project is also drawing criticism from the varsity’s faculty, students and the alumni who have vowed to foil any such attempt come what may.

The varsity administration has written letters to the chief secretary and the chief minister asking them to withdraw the decision to use property of the esteemed historic educational institution for the BRTS. The Old Ravian Union has also threatened to make a human chain if their alma mater gets affected by the project.

The Ittehad Bainul Muslimeen, a religious body, is also opposing the project. It has displayed posters on the Lower Mall saying it would resist the elevated bus track as it was tantamount to desecrating Karbala Gamey Shah and the nearby shrine of the patron saint of Lahore, Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh.

Responding to a query by this reporter, Transport Secretary Muhammad Yousuf revealed that diesel-run buses would be plied on the dedicated track.

When he was asked as to how the government would ensure uninterrupted CNG supply to these buses, especially in view of demand from different quarters to divert the gas towards industry and energy production, the secretary said an appeal had been filed in a court seeking directions for provision of gas to the buses to be run in other Punjab cities. So far as Lahore was concerned there would be diesel buses, he said.

And when asked about the environmental impact of the diesel-run buses, he said they would be ‘environment-friendly’. He, however, kept mum when asked how people, especially those living in the congested residential-cum-commercial areas like Lytton Road, would breath after the elevated track goes functional.

Mr Yousuf and Mr Sibtain Fazle Haleem, a retired top bureaucrat recently engaged for the project, say that major stakeholders –the people of the areas falling under the project, were consulted before its launch. The secretary said that an advertisement was placed in newspapers to seek public opinion on the proposed project.

The secretary had no answer to the question as to why the GCU administration was kept in the dark about the plan to use the varsity land for the project.

The secretary said all paperwork, including viability reports, PC-I and environment report were prepared before launching the project. His claim is contested by many in the government service and otherwise.Mr Yousuf and Mr Haleem said there was no undue haste in executing the project and they did not know when it would be completed.

The pace of work on the city roads, nevertheless, suggests that someone is in a hurry if they both are not

BRTS between Yateem Khanna & S-Mor

Repair of Multan Road’s Section 3, Phase-2  – from Scheme Mor to Chauburji- may begin this month, Project Director Sabir Khan Sadozai said on Tuesday.

The work originally scheduled to begin on the completion of widening and improvement of the road from Thokhar Niaz Beg to Scheme Mor in October 2011, was brought to a halt by lack of funds.

Sadozai said the government has now approved Rs873 million for a scaled down project.

Talking about a tentative date for the initiation of the project, Sadozai said, it was still early to say when road work could start as Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and the Revenue Department had yet to submit their assessment of the revised project. He said the reports were likely to be available in two weeks.

Sources in Project Management Unit (PMU) claim that carpeting of the road will not cause traffic congestion. ]

While the road will only be repaired for the time being, PMU officials say Rs300 million will be required if the government decides to expand it.

Work to improve and repair Multan Road began in October 2009.

The 7.3 km road from Thokar Niaz Beg to Scheme Mor (Section 1) was completed in October 2011 at a cost of Rs1.5 billion out of the Rs2,13 billion allocated for the whole project.

Sewer line

Work on a 72-inch wide and 40-foot deep sewerage line on the road has been started at a cost of Rs1.43 billion. It is meant to address sewerage problems in Canal View Society, Azam Garden and Mustafa Town.

Pre-planning for the BRTS

The renovation of the 3.7 kilometres road will be followed by installation of pillars for a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) running from Chowk Yateem Kahana to Samanbad Mor.

Commissioner Jawad Rafique Malik told The Express Tribune that BRTS will be run from Thokar Niaz Beg till Scheme Mor on a road corridor and from Scheme Mor to Chauburji on an elevated lane.

Communication and Works Chief Engineer Munawwar Bashir toldThe Tribune that up to 15-foot land will be acquired at some places along the stretch.

He said that the Water and Sanitation Agency will expand the adjacent drain from 1.8 metres to 4.5 metres for installation of pillars for the bridge.

BRTS Contractors issued Notice over Dust Levels

The Environment Protection Department has issued a notice to the supervisors and contractors of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project for failing to control dust levels and traffic hazards as prescribed in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for the project.

The office of the district coordination officer (DCO) has received hundreds of complaints about high dust levels and traffic problems from residents of areas close to the work site on Ferozepur Road, said Tariq Zaman, the DCO’s personal staff officer.

“For the last eight months, we have been dusting the house two or three times a day, and it is still never clean. I have to wash my car daily,” said Saeed Zaidi, a resident of Nishtar Colony.

“My children used to go to a nearby park to play in the evenings, but they stopped going several months ago because the dust makes it hard to breathe. It is impossible to take a walk around the neighbourhood,” he said.

Zaidi said many people from the neighbourhood had damaged their vehicles or fallen from their motorbikes upon encountering an unexpected hole while driving on Ferozepur Road.

“We have registered several complaints with their offices along the site to seal the area and install lights during the night, but no notice has been taken,” he said. He added that it was also very noisy at night.

EPD spokesman and EIA director Naseemur Rehman Shah said that DCO Noorul Amin Mengal had met with EPD officers a couple of weeks ago and asked them to check that the contractors were taking measures prescribed in the EIA report. The report stated that workers would sprinkle water at the site to reduce dust levels.

This was not being done and so on June 29, the EPD issued an “advisory notice” to Mazhar Hussain Khan, a director at the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA), which is supervising the BRTS; the project director of the National Logistics Cell (NLC), the contractor for the project; and Azharul Haq, the chief executive officer of IKAN engineering services, a sub contractor.

Shah said that the officials had been told to seal the dug-up areas, as they posed a risk to motorcyclists and cars, particularly at night. They were also told to pump out water from depressions around the construction site to prevent the formation of mosquito breeding grounds, especially in view of the upcoming monsoons. Finally, they were asked to sprinkle water at the site to bring down levels of dust, which is a major air pollutant.

EPD Secretary Saeed Iqbal Wahla said that if these measures were not taken, the department would issue an Environmental Protection Order and the case would be sent to the Punjab Environmental Tribunal for further action.

The DCO had also received several complaints about traffic problems on the road due to the BRTS construction, said Zaman.

He said that the city traffic police had been directed to triple the deployment of wardens along the road and to ensure there is at least one at each intersection.