TransPeshawar

TransPeshawar (Urdu: ٹرانز پشاور‎; Pashto: ټرانز پېښور‎) or Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (Peshawar BRT) is a bus rapid transit system currently under construction by the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. Divided into two separate phases, the first phase of the TransPeshawar BRT system will encompass an east-west corridor to be served by 30 stations with an initial 220 buses out of which 155 are 12-meter-long buses while 65 are 18-meter-long buses. 88% of funding is being provided by the Asian Development Bank.

TransPeshawar
ٹرانز پشاور
ټرانز پېښور
Overview
SystemGreater Peshawar Region Mass Transit
OperatorGovernment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
StatusUnder Construction
Route
Route typeBus Rapid Transit
LocalePeshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
StartChamkani
EndKarkhano
Stops32
Service
Ridership500,000[1]
transpeshawar.pk

History

In 2013, the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa requested technical support from the Cities Development Initiative for Asia to improve Peshawar's chaotic, mismanaged, and dilapidated urban transportation network.[2] In 2014, the CDIA completed the Urban Transport Pre-Feasibility Study that devised a 20-year urban transport plan, with a 10-year action plan. The CDIA studied two corridors, an east-west corridor, and a north-south corridor and recommended that the east-west corridor be constructed first,[2] along Peshawar's east-west axis along the Grand Trunk Road. Construction of the project, under the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), began on 29 October 2017,[3] and is being executed by the Peshawar Development Authority.

Features

TransPeshawar's first phase will consist of an east-west busway which will stretch from Chamkani in the east end to the Karkhano market in the west end of Peshawar. It is planned that feeder routes will also start either before or along side main corridor.

Route

The system will have 30 stations and will be mostly elevated (around 49 %) while 38 % will be at grade and only 17 % via underpass.[2] The line will also contain 3.4 kilometers of underpasses, 10.5 kilometers of at garade and 13.7 kilometers of elevated part .[2] The entire busway will be fenced to prevent unauthorized pedestrian crossings,[4] and to prevent vehicular traffic from entering. However passerbys can use stairs,elevators or bridges to cross the BRT corridor and reach on the other side.

Buses

TransPeshawar was originally planned to use a fleet of 255 buses, of which 155 will be 12 meter-long buses, while 65 will be 18 meter-long articulated buses.[5][6] The articulated buses will run only within the Service route/within corridor while the 12 meter-long buses will run in primarily in the Feeder system.

The Buses will be of the low-entry[6] type which will allow easy entry and egress from the doorways, especially for patrons using wheelchairs. Each bus will provide free Wifi[5][6] services for passengers, while stations will have toilet facilities.[7] Buses will arrive every 3 minutes during peak hours, and every 5 minutes during non-peak hours.[8]

Furthermore, the buses will be Diesel-Electric Plug-In Hybrids which will allow them to have improved overall fuel economy and lower emissions. For this purpose, charging stations will also be built to allow for recharging of the vehicle batteries.[5][6] All these buses are environment friendly and will reduce the air pollution in the city.

The contract for the supply of buses has been formally signed with Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co., Ltd.. The tender allowed for a variation of +/-30%[5] in the quantity of buses, thus as a start the contract has been signed for the supply of 155 units of 12-meter buses and 65 units of 18-meter articulated buses for a total value of PKR 5.478 billion.[9] The provision to increase the quantity of buses to a maximum of 388 buses (+30% of 299) is still present, and this may be done depending on the passenger load on the system once the initial batch of 220 buses enters operation.

Stations

TransPeshawar's 31 stations will feature passing lanes at each station, allowing the function of a "direct service" system in which buses from suburban areas can access TransPeshawar's dedicated bus-lanes for use as an express service directly to the city's centre.[2] Each station will be on average 850 metres from the previous station, with an estimated travel time of 2 minutes between adjacent stations.[8] Stations, unlike the buses themselves, will not be air conditioned.[8]

Feeder system

The TransPeshawar system will be complemented by a feeder system consisting of 8 routes extending 68 kilometres.[10] Feeder buses will use dedicated BRT lanes as needed before exiting the system and entering onto city streets as on-street bus service.[2] The feeder routes will add an additional 100 stations along those feeder lines,[2] all of which will be new construction.[2] Feeder station will be spaced approximately 300-500 metres from one another.[2]

Construction

Construction of the east-west corridor will be completed in three phases:[11]

  • Phase 1: Chamkani to Balahisar Fort
  • Phase 2: Balahisar Fort to Aman Chowk
  • Phase 3: Aman Chowk to Karkhano Market

The entire road structure along the east-west corridor will also be reconstructed, and will include a new bicycle lane.[2] The number of traffic lanes along the GT Road will also be reduced, leading to what will be intended as a more pedestrian-friendly street.[2]

Project construction was launched in November 2017, and is being built concurrent to the Peshawar Ring Road, which will redirect heavy vehicles away from the city centre. The project was awarded to consortium led by China Railway 21st Bureau Group, while engineering consulting was provided by Mott MacDonald.

Fares

The provincial government intends to collect fares via an automated ticketing system that is also intended to be used on all city routes. Currently, fares are collected by bus operators. With implementation of the automated ticketing system, bus operators will no longer collect fares.[12]

Financing

The project is being built with assistance from the Asian Development Bank. It was initially projected to cost ₨41 billion (US$250 million),[11] but its final estimated cost is approximately ₨71 billion (US$430 million).[13] The provincial government will borrow ₨48.8 billion (US$290 million) for the project,[13] The system will be the most expensive BRT system in Pakistan,[14] the provincial government argues that similar systems in Islamabad and Lahore actually cost ₨27 billion (US$160 million) and ₨29 billion (US$180 million) respectively.[14] The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government claims include costs of parallel roadworks project undertaken with the construction of the metro such as the Model town underpass in Lahore and the Cloverleaf interchange in Rawalpindi[14].

Corruption Allegations and Criticism

During Pakistan General Elections 2018, general public is talking about the recent allegations raised against KPK govt on which one of the asst. resident engineer has resigned by saying that there is a lot of corruption going on in this project due to which it has been delayed, however,the General Manager (Operations) Tariq Mehmood has rejected the allegations and said the assistant resident engineer was sacked from his job due to his ‘poor performance’ and ‘incompetence’. [15]

On March/April 2019, The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial inspection team submitted a detailed report on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project with an estimate that ‘some people’ received kickbacks totalling around Rs7 billion. The team had found that the route was constructed without feasibility, geotechnical, sewerage, traffic and water supply studies, among other reports, being undertaken before construction of the route. The route, according to officials privy to the report, has eaten away at an average of 40 per cent of available roadways on either side of the entire BRT route from its starting point to the end point. According to report, the entire elevated section was miscalculated and that since there was no alternative for mixed traffic at BRT stations, at the traffic signals on the elevated sections, there will always be bottlenecks, causing immense traffic jams for mixed traffic. The inspection report submitted by the provincial inspection team to KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan expressed serious reservations over the entire project by stating the project was initiated without any comprehensive plan. However, KP CM criticised the inspection team for making Peshawar BRT report public and stated that flaws will be fixed, but rejected allegations of traffic bottlenecks caused by the operation of BRT project.[16][17] [18]

See also

References
  1. "Over 0.5m Peshawar residence to use BRT every day". TransPeshawar.
  2. "Peshawar Sustainable Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Project" (PDF). Asian Development Bank. February 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  3. "Work on BRT Peshawar in full swing". The News. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  4. "NA Noor Aftab February 13, 2017 Share advertisement KP to construct Peshawar metro by Dec 2017". The News Pakistan. 13 February 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  5. "Tender Document for Purchase of Bus Fleet" (PDF). TransPeshawar. TransPeshawar. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  6. "Addendum-1 to Tender Document for Purchase of Bus Fleet" (PDF). TransPeshawar. TransPeshawar. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  7. "FAQs". TransPeshawar. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  8. National Highway Authority
  9. "BRT project unlikely to meet April 20 deadline". DAWN News. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  10. "Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project a race against time". Dawn. 11 March 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  11. "Peshawar metro bus design finalised". Daily Times. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  12. "Expression Of Interest Development, Implementation, Operations and Maintenance of Automated Fare Collection and Bus Scheduling System (AFC-BSS) for Public Transport Service in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa" (PDF). Government of KPK. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  13. "Peshawar to get BRT by January 2018". Express Tribune Pakistan. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  14. "'Peshawar metro bus project costlier than Lahore, Pindi's'". 19 March 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  15. https://www.samaa.tv/news/2018/05/brt-peshawar-engineer-resigns-over-huge-corruption-in-project/
  16. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1941421/1-brt-report-uncovers-rs7b-kickbacks/?amp=1
  17. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1947061/1-k-p-cm-criticises-pit-making-peshawar-brt-report-public/?amp=1
  18. https://thenews.com.pk/print/462757-brt-chief-engineer-terms-provincial-inspection/?amp=1
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