45 Buses for MBS to arrive soon

Two ships carrying 45 articulated buses for the Metro Bus Service (MBS) route are likely to arrive from China at the Karachi seaport in a few days, officials related to the development told Dawn on Monday.

The buses will ply on a 27 kilomtere corridor being constructed from Gajjumatta to Shahdara.

According to officials, buses have been dispatched by the manufacturing company, Volvo China, to Pakistan. The fleet costs over Rs1.260 billion whereas each bus is Rs28 million. As soon as the ships dock at Karachi seaport, a technical team of the Punjab government would go there to deal with unloading, and custom clearance issues.

The fleet will be transported to Lahore from the port through trawlers, Lahore Development Authority Director General Ahad Cheema told Dawn. Each bus is 18 metre long and is right hand drive.

“Every bus has 50 to 60 seats with separate compartments for women and men, and can accommodate 150 passengers in all at a time,” he said.

The metro route will have 27 stations, of that 18 are near completion. The work on the remaining nine stations was being carried out on a fast track and would be completed in a fortnight, he said.

The corridor includes an 8km overhead bridge from Muslim Town Mor to Texali. Mr Cheema said some of the overhead’s portions were still under various phases such as piling, shuttering and concrete and earth filling, adding that the bridge would be completed by mid December.

Mr Cheema said though there was no deadline to launch buses on the MBS, the LDA would be able to know about the tentative dates in the next 15 days.

He said the ongoing construction of Kalma Chowk underpass would not cause a delay in the MBS completion.

“Actually the underpass is not a part of the MBS, and the construction of the route is going on at this particular portion,” he said.

The Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency has been tasked with constructing the Kalma Chowk underpass in two months.

More roadworks: Two underpasses at Kalma Chowk approved

The government has approved the building of two underpasses at Kalma Chowk linking Garden Town and Gulberg’s Main Boulevard at a cost of Rs1.125 billion, with construction work due to start in just a few days, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Project Director Mazhar Hussain confirmed that a budget had been approved for the two underpasses, but refused to give any project details. He said the design details for the underpasses would be finalised in a couple of days, at which point he would be able to share them with the press.

Officials in the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (Tepa) said that according to the approved proposal, the three-lane underpasses would be 5.1 metres high, meaning they could be used by heavy traffic as well, unlike most of the underpasses in the city, which are 3.6 metres high. Given their additional height, they would be longer (about 600 metres) as well as steeper, with a five-degree slope rather than a three-degree slope. They said the underpasses would be built in two months.

The Tepa officials said the longer underpasses might cause some traffic problems. Vehicles entering the underpass from Garden Town towards Gulberg would exit past Centre Point, meaning vehicles heading for Defence via Ali Zeb Road would have to travel towards the Liberty Roundabout and then back, creating further congestion at the already busy junction.

They said that they expected the government to address the design issue so that the underpass could be shortened before construction starts in a few days. “The MBS design was changed several times too. The government will have to reconsider” the length of the underpasses, an official said.

The officials said that once the underpasses were finished, vehicles would no longer be able to take u-turns at Kalma Chowk, or to take right turns when approaching from slip lanes, as the bus corridor beneath and between the flyovers would be sealed off with railing, as along the rest of the Metro Bus Service route. They said that the decision to do so had been made recently.

The abolition of turnings at Kalma Chowk for ground-level traffic due to the sealed-off bus lane would also make life more difficult for vehicles on Ferozepur Road, said the officials. It would mean that rather than take a u-turn or right turn at Kalma Chowk, vehicles would have to travel to the Canal intersection, to the turning at Gulab Devi, to the Liberty Roundabout, or to Garden Town.

“Road users will have to travel an extra kilometre, maybe more, to take u-turns. This will add to the congestion at all remaining turnings,” one official said, adding that he expected the government to reverse the decision.

Chief Traffic Officer Captain Sohail said that they had already made traffic flow plans for potential underpass construction at Kalma Chowk, as well as at Azadi Chowk and Qainchi. He said he wasn’t aware that Kalma Chowk was to be closed for ground-level traffic.

The construction of an underpass for Model Town is currently underway. Officials said that the top slab of the tunnel had been finished, meaning that buses could run overhead on the MBS route. They said that the project would be finished in another 40 days. They said that the top slabs for the Kalma Chowk underpasses would be finished quickly so they didn’t disrupt bus services. They said that they expected work on the MBS not to finish till February, well past the deadline for the project set by the chief minister.

Urban development: Multan Road widening to be finished in February

The expansion of Multan Road between Chauburji and Scheme Mor is to be completed by February, provided sewerage work is finished on time, said the project director.

“We will finish the work by January 31, which is the official deadline,” said Project Director Sabir Khan Sadozai. He said apart from the cost of land acquisition, the project would cost Rs805million.

He said that currently the National Logistics Cell (NLC) was working on a central drain that was in two parts: one section from Yateem Khana to Scheme Mor, and the other from Yateem Khana to near Samanabad Mor. This drain would join with the Cantt drain.

Sadozai said that the Water and Sanitation Agency was laying sewerage lines on both sides of Multan Road. He said that both NLC and Wasa had stated that they would complete their work by the end of November. “After that, we will complete the road construction within eight weeks,” he said.

The Multan Road project has caused major travel headaches for local residents, particularly as work on the Metro Bus Service on Ferozepur Road is also ongoing. Multan Road is used by more than 160,000 vehicles every day, said Sadozai.

Two major intersections on Multan Road – Yateem Khana Chowk and Scheme Mor   are to be widened in the ongoing road project. These chowks will have slip-lanes and signal-free corridors. Sadozai said that the slip lanes would be separated from the main road at some distance from traffic signals so that vehicles going straight don’t clog the lane and block the vehicles turning left. He said that the project would leave the road without traffic problems for at least five years.

Officials connected with the project said that 34 kanals had already been bought on both sides of Yateem Khana Chowk, at a cost of Rs700 million, while 27 kanals would be acquired at Samanabad Mor.

Revenue officials said that the government would need to buy an additional 21 kanals   11 in Nawakot and 10 in the revenue limits of Pakki Tatthi   if it were to build a Metro Bus Service lane on Multan Road. The National Engineering Services of Pakistan (NESPAK) and Turkish company Ulasim have already done a feasibility study for an MBS lane on Multan Road.

The officials said that the acquisition of land, normally a painstaking process resisted by residents, had been surprisingly simple in the Yateem Khana Chowk area. They said that much of the land had been owned by Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam. After they agreed a price, they began demolishing their own buildings. “Once that happened, the rest were easy to convince,” said the officials.

They said that owners of land within 50 feet of the road were paid Rs1 million per marla – Rs0.85 million per marla for the land, and Rs0.15 million per marla for construction cost – while owners of land further away from the road were paid 0.84 million per marla   Rs 0.69 million per marla for land, and Rs0.15 million per marla for construction.

The officials said that the government should have purchased the land required for the MBS on Multan Road, as it would have caused less disruption in the area if it were to do so now rather than later. They said that the government had dropped the idea of buying the land immediately some six weeks ago, “due to political interference”.

Earlier work on Multan Road

The expansion of Multan Road began in October 2009 and the section from Thokar Niaz Beg to Scheme Mor, around 7.3 km, has been rehabilitated. The government allocated Rs2.13 billion for works on this section. Some Rs1.66 billion was allocated for land acquisition and relocation of roadside facilities and Rs308 million for a sewerage line. A 72-inch trunk sewerage line 40-foot deep is also being laid at a cost of Rs1.43 billion. The line would address sewerage problems in Canal View Society, Azam Garden, Mustafa Town and other areas between Chungi and Thokar Niaz Beg.

Alongside the 7.3 km stretch of three-lane road, this section has 3 km of service lanes and 80 green belts have been turned into parking stands. Seven taxi stands have been built. Seven pedestrian bridges have been constructed while one is under construction.