Orange Line Metro Bus service from Peshawar Morr to Airport starts trial run
Zubair Qureshi
In line with the directions of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Orange Line Metro Bus Service from Peshawar Mor (G-9/4) to Islamabad International Airport started its trial run Saturday.
Officials of the National Highway Authority (NHA), Capital Development Authority (CDA), and others traveled by the bus to inspect the quality of service, leveling of the roads, escalators and other facilities for the passengers.
According to a senior official of the CDA, the trial run would continue for one more day i.e. Sunday (today) and then Prime Minister Sharif would formally launch the bus service on Monday (tomorrow).
The 25.6 km route from Peshawar Mor to IIA has seven stations while a platform is constructed close to the proximity of the airport.
In the beginning 30 buses will be run on the route and on busy hours, buses will arrive at each station with a break of five minutes while during the off-rush hours, the bus arrival time will be increased up to 7 minutes.
In the beginning, the CDA as per directions of the prime minister has borrowed 15 orange buses from the Punjab Metro Bus Transport Authority and according to a rough estimate daily 25,000 to 26,000 passengers will travel by these buses on a daily basis.
As per the directions of the prime minister, no fare will be charged from the passengers during the holy month of Ramazan. A CDA official said the passengers will enjoy travelling facilities of the international-level facilities.
During his visit to the site on Tuesday, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had resented that the project, launched by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in 2017 with a stipulated completion time of a year, was still incomplete and pointed out that Rs16 billion had been spent on the project so far.
The prime minister had also directed the officials to ensure the launch of the bus service by the weekend.
It was supposed to be completed in August 2018, but even after four years since the deadline is over, the project is facing delay and its civil work was completed only last year.Construction of the 26 km metro track worth Rs16 billion started in January 2017 and the project was executed by the National Highway Authority (NHA).
