Capital Development Authority (CDA), in a meeting on Tuesday, decided to launch a bus service in the Islamabad Territory within a period of five months.
The Development Working Party (DWP), on Tuesday, conducted a meeting which was chaired by the CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed, to approve PC-Is of eight different development projects in the Capital Territory, including the launch of Islamabad Bus Service for which a grant of Rs873m has been approved by the CDA board members.
“The bus service having a project cost of Rs873 million has been approved. This project will be completed by February 2022 and the service will run on three routes,” said Asif Ali Raza, the representative of CDA.
Route of the Buses:
According to the concept plan, as told by a CDA official, the buses will operate on six major routes of Islamabad. However, in the starting phase, the buses will run on three routes only which include:
- Sohan Garden to Faisal Mosque
- Tarnol Railways station to M-5 metro station
- Bhara Kahu to Aabpara and Faiz Ahmed Faiz Metro Station
Currently, no public bus service is available in the Islamabad city except for the Metro bus service which only covers single designated route. In the past, buses of the Government Transport Service (GTS) operated in the city in 1980s and later, Varan, a private company initiated its bus service which was terminated after few years.
Other projects approved in the meeting:
Along with the Islamabad Bus Service, seven other projects were also Okayed.
Talking about the other projects, a CDA official said, “Earlier, our focus was road projects and we launched several mega projects in this regard. Now, we want to focus on improving service delivery and quality of life.”
Additional projects approved include:
- Provision of the latest machinery to the Sanitation Directorate to improve cleanliness system, which will cost Rs689 million.
- A project costing Rs401 million, to enhance the capacity of the Machinery Pool Organization.
- Construction of 115 public toilets in different areas of the city which will cost an expenditure of Rs40million.
- Construction of underpasses on the intersection of Ataturk Avenue, G-5 and G-6 costing Rs193 million
- Rs157 million approved for widening of Jinnah Avenue and Ayub Chowk from Ataturk Avenue
“The project approved today will be executed within the stipulated time as we have surplus budget,” said an officer of the CDA.