Green Line buses ferry over 1 million commuters in a month The formal operation of the Green Line bus service completes its first month on Thursday and by Wednesday evening more than a million people have travelled through its dedicated corridor on 80 buses raising expectations that the service would be catering for the projected number of commuters every day within the first six months.
According to official data, from the formal launch on January 10 till Feb 9 evening, a total of 1,093,000 passengers had travelled on Green Line without any break.This shows on an average 35,000 people moved on 80 buses of the project on weekdays and the number sometimes swelled to 50,000 during weekends.
The federal govt funded public transport project despite off and on complaints about maintenance of its related services has been seen as a ‘blessing’ for the people mainly in district Central who believe that the much-awaited scheme had finally started yielding results.“It is saving my money, time and energy,” said Umair Ali, a young banker from North Nazimabad.who had stopped riding motorcycle last month to reach his workplace in Soldier Bazaar.
Passengers like Umair are paying Rs15 to Rs55 for their respective destinations and enjoying the ride in an 18-metre-long bus passing through 22 stations over 22-kilometre route from Surjani Town to Numaish.The growing response has pushed the authorities to carry out further innovations to make the ticketing system more user-friendly.“Currently, the passengers are availing tickets manually and by a prepaid card system. Now an app is being developed where the passengers can book their ticket and pay online from anywhere.
It would be available soon,” said Abdul Aziz, senior manager of the Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (SIDCL).He believed that it would be a little early to arrive at a conclusion about the status of the project saying the initial assessment would be made after the first six months of formal launch.
