Staff Reporter
Peshawar
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Finance and Health Minister, Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra on Thursday showed satisfaction over the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, referring to it as a ‘vibrant and state-of-the-art service delivering like no other in Pakistan’.
Twittering his experience of travel on BRT, Jhagra said he decided to undertake a visit and try out the bus service to see what’s working and give a feedback. He travelled in a bus en route to Hayatabad the other day at 2130 hours for a meeting with his constituency team, at the Tehkal stop.
‘I thought it’d be useful to test out the BRT service and glad that I did it because it enabled me to see it’s functioning and give a feedback,’ the minister wrote on Twitter. Lauding the helpful staff at the stations and the facilities provided at the bus station, Jhagra also praised the discipline exhibited by the people on board, stating that the bus was crowded and almost full with passengers.
The Minister said he felt proud to see discipline amongst the passengers adding most of those using the service were using it as a utility and not just for curiosity, which means the service is much useful for the locals. Referring to the facilities provided to women on board, the minister was happy to see the women’s section at the front both occupied and their privacy being respected. The notable statement he issued was the need for more buses saying ‘Insha’Allah we will be doubling the number of buses on this route as soon as we can’.
Sharing that the staff was courteous and was only permitting people through station gates with masks, Jhagra lamented that unfortunately passengers looked reluctant for wearing masks inside the buses adding the issue needs to collectively work on. ‘Hygiene was good, but keep stations and buses as clean as they ought to be will be our biggest challenge,’ he added. The minister urged the people to own the project and consider it an asset for Pakistan.’Now, let us all own this as an asset for Peshawar and make it run as well as possible,’ the minister asserted.
It merits a mention here that last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan had inaugurated the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, which is the flagship project of the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to make daily commute easier for the locals. KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, along with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, were present at the launch of the project, where the Premier had also delivered a speech.
