TransPeshawar
TransPeshawar or Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit is a bus rapid transit system currently under construction by the Peshawar Development Authority in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Divided into two separate phases, the first phase of the TransPeshawar BRT system will encompass an east-west corridor to be served by 30 stations with an initial 220 buses out of which 155 are 12-meter-long buses while 65 are 18-meter-long buses.
History
In 2013, the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa requested technical support from the Cities Development Initiative for Asia to improve Peshawar's chaotic, mismanaged, and dilapidated urban transportation network. In 2014, the CDIA completed the Urban Transport Pre-Feasibility Study that devised a 20-year urban transport plan, with a 10-year action plan. The CDIA studied two corridors, an east-west corridor, and a north-south corridor and recommended that the east-west corridor be constructed first, along Peshawar's east-west axis along the Grand Trunk Road. Construction of the project, under the Peshawar Development Authority, began on 29 October 2014, and is being executed by the Peshawar Development Authority.Features
TransPeshawar's first phase will consist of an east-west busway which will stretch from Chamkani in the east end to the Karkhano market in the west end of Peshawar. It is planned that feeder routes will also start either before or along side main corridor.Route
The system will have 30 stations and will be mostly elevated while 38 % will be at grade and only 17 % via underpass. The line will also contain 3.4 kilometers of underpasses, 10.5 kilometers of at garade and 13.7 kilometers of elevated part. The entire busway will be fenced to prevent unauthorized pedestrian crossings, and to prevent vehicular traffic from entering. However passerbys can use stairs,elevators or bridges to cross the BRT corridor and reach on the other side.Buses
TransPeshawar was originally planned to use a fleet of 255 buses, of which 155 will be 12 meter-long buses, while 65 will be 18 meter-long articulated buses. The articulated buses will run only within the Service route/within corridor while the 12 meter-long buses will run in primarily in the Feeder system.The Buses will be of the low-entry type which will allow easy entry and egress from the doorways, especially for patrons using wheelchairs. Each bus will provide free Wifi services for passengers, while stations will have toilet facilities. Buses will arrive every 3 minutes during peak hours, and every 5 minutes during non-peak hours.
Furthermore, the buses will be Diesel-Electric Plug-In Hybrids which will allow them to have improved overall fuel economy and lower emissions. For this purpose, charging stations will also be built to allow for recharging of the vehicle batteries. All these buses are environment friendly and will reduce the air pollution in the city.
The contract for the supply of buses has been formally signed with Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co., Ltd.. The tender allowed for a variation of +/-30% in the quantity of buses, thus as a start the contract has been signed for the supply of 155 units of 12-meter buses and 65 units of 18-meter articulated buses for a total value of PKR 5.478 billion. The provision to increase the quantity of buses to a maximum of 388 buses is still present, and this may be done depending on the passenger load on the system once the initial batch of 220 buses enters operation.
Stations
TransPeshawar's 31 stations will feature passing lanes at each station, allowing the function of a "direct service" system in which buses from suburban areas can access TransPeshawar's dedicated bus-lanes for use as an express service directly to the city's centre. Each station will be on average 850 metres from the previous station, with an estimated travel time of 2 minutes between adjacent stations. Stations, unlike the buses themselves, will not be air conditioned.Feeder system
The TransPeshawar system will be complemented by a feeder system consisting of 8 routes extending 68 kilometres. Feeder buses will use dedicated BRT lanes as needed before exiting the system and entering onto city streets as on-street bus service. The feeder routes will add an additional 100 stations along those feeder lines, all of which will be new construction. Feeder station will be spaced approximately 300-500 metres from one another.Construction
Construction of the east-west corridor will be never be completed.:- Phase 1: Chamkani to Balahisar Fort
- Phase 2: Balahisar Fort to Aman Chowk
- Phase 3: Aman Chowk to Karkhano Market
Project construction was launched in November 2017, and is being built concurrent to the Peshawar Ring Road, which will redirect heavy vehicles away from the city centre. The project was awarded to consortium led by China Railway 21st Bureau Group, while engineering consulting was provided by Mott MacDonald.
Fares
The provincial government intends to collect fares via an automated ticketing system that is also intended to be used on all city routes. Currently, fares are collected by bus operators. With implementation of the automated ticketing system, bus operators will no longer collect fares.Financing
The project is being built with assistance from the Asian Development Bank. It was initially projected to cost, but its final estimated cost is approximately. The provincial government will borrow for the project, The system will be the most expensive BRT system in Pakistan, the provincial government argues that similar systems in Islamabad and Lahore actually cost and respectively.<"'Peshawar metro bus project costlier than Lahore, Pindi's'" Dawn, 19 March 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2017./> The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government claims include costs of parallel roadworks project undertaken with the construction of the metro such as the Model town underpass in Lahore and the Cloverleaf interchange in Rawalpindi.Corruption Allegations and Criticism
During Pakistan General Elections 2018, general public is talking about the recent allegations raised against KPK govt on which one of the asst. resident engineer has resigned by saying that there is a lot of corruption going on in this project due to which it has been delayed, however,the General Manager Tariq Mehmood has rejected the allegations and said the assistant resident engineer was sacked from his job due to his ‘poor performance’ and ‘incompetence’.On March/April 2019, The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial inspection team submitted a detailed report on the Bus Rapid Transit project with an estimate that ‘some people’ received kickbacks totalling around Rs7 billion. The team had found that the route was constructed without feasibility, geotechnical, sewerage, traffic and water supply studies, among other reports, being undertaken before construction of the route.
The route, according to officials privy to the report, has eaten away at an average of 40 per cent of available roadways on either side of the entire BRT route from its starting point to the end point. According to report, the entire elevated section was miscalculated and that since there was no alternative for mixed traffic at BRT stations, at the traffic signals on the elevated sections, there will always be bottlenecks, causing immense traffic jams for mixed traffic. The inspection report submitted by the provincial inspection team to KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan expressed serious reservations over the entire project by stating the project was initiated without any comprehensive plan. However, KP CM criticised the inspection team for making Peshawar BRT report public and stated that flaws will be fixed, but rejected allegations of traffic bottlenecks caused by the operation of BRT project.