pakistan 
Karachi –
Prime Minister Imran Khan
Is set for the groundbreaking of the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project this coming Friday (December 10), Asad Umar announced on Sunday.
He said the Green Line BRT was Karachi’s first modern transport system.
A few days back, Umar had announced that the BRT would start its commercial operations on December 25. Under this project, the federal government has purchased 80 buses to offer affordable transport to the residents of Karachi.
It merits mentioning that half of these buses arrived in September this year and the remaining 40 buses came in October. According to an estimate, the service would facilitate around 300,000 passengers daily.
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The planning minister claimed that the long-awaited project would be set for trial operations in the next ten days.
After the trial operations of around two weeks, the bus service will start with its commercial operations. Later in the day, Umar addressed the PTI workers’ convention in Karachi, saying that the PTI-led government was keen to resolve Karachi’s transport issues.
“PM Khan is coming to Karachi to solve various civic issues of the citizens,” he said. He said Karachi’s journey towards development had started.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif had performed the groundbreaking of the project that was set to be completed by the end of 2017. However, the service got delayed several times. Reports say that the 18-metre-long buses have 40 seats and can accommodate 140 people at a time. The vehicles are of Euro 3 standard, meaning that the carbon monoxide emissions would be lower.
The vehicles will be run on diesel and batteries and have a special ramp for differently-abled people, and the seats in them have dual space. The city’s BRT project has a 24-km long route and consists of 25 stations.
