Zubair Qureshi
The trial run of Metro Bus Service to the Islamabad International Airport (IIA) will be undertaken during the first week of next month.
A spokesman of CDA said that third-party inspection of buses purchased for the project has already been completed in China. It will take 20 days for the ship to reach Karachi from where it will be brought to Islamabad.
In the first phase, 15 buses painted in orange colour would be dispatched to Pakistan and arrive in Islamabad within 20 days.
The official said regular metro bus service from Peshawar Mor to Islamabad International Airport would start between April 15 and 20.
In all, 30 buses would run on the route, it has been further learnt.
We are going to fulfill the promise of starting this public welfare project. State of the art buses have been manufactured and their pre-shipment has been completed, according to CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed. The launch of the bus service will provide modern and quality travel facilities to citizens of Islamabad. The bus service will help take some vehicular pressure from other roads, the CDA chief further said.
According to a press release, the trial run of Metro bus service will start in the first week of April. Total of 30 buses will run on this route. The buses have been painted in orange color in accordance with Orange Route.
Earlier, the CDA was planning to inaugurate the bus service on March 23 but it has been delayed and shifted next month.
Some 30 buses are arriving and the CDA will also use some of the buses for running a public bus service from Expressway to Faisal Mosque. They said that traffic congestion has been witnessed on the expressway and due to the bus service it will be controlled to some extent.
The CDA, after a competitive process had placed the order for procuring 30 buses to an international bus manufacturing company called Higer Bus Company, which had submitted a bid of Rs728 million for the 30 buses. They said the company manufactured buses in China.
The CDA took over the metro bus project in March last year from the National Highways Authority (NHA) on the direction of the federal government and started the process to procure the buses. The construction of the 25.6 kilometres bus track worth Rs16 billion started in January 2017. The project was executed by NHA and it was supposed to be completed in Aug 2018 but its civil work was completed last year.
