The Government of Sindh has started to work on their new project of “Red Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)”. This project was started in the view that the Green Line BRT Project alone won’t fulfill the needs of a big city Karachi which has a population of over 15 million.
It is expected that this project will be completed in a time period of two years by 2021.
Construction of 29.1 km long corridor is included in this Red Line Project. From this long corridor, a long passage of about 24.4 km will be constructed from Malir Halt Deport to Numaish. And the rest 2.4 km long passage would include and connect the Municipal Park to Merewether Tower. The responsibility to oversee the construction, security, maintenance, and operation has been given to the Trans Karachi Company and Sindh Mass Transport Authority.
The time period of this project would be from March 2019 to the mid of 2021. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other financiers will contribute about $474.321 million while the Sindh Government would be spending about $88 million to this project.
About 29 stations would be constructed throughout along the route of the Red Line Project. Out of 29 stations, 24 will be the main corridor while the rest 5 will be joint corridor stations. The main BRT lane will be 3.5 meters wide and about 0.3 meters to 0.6 meters will be a gap between the stations along this lane. Sidewalls of about 1.2 to 3 meter wide will also be constructed along this BRT lane as well.
The BRT fleet will have 199 vehicles, which would include 19 buses extending to nine metres in length. Out of 199 buses, 134 will be extending to 12 metres in length and the rest 46 buses will be 18 metre long. Along the length of the main BRT corridor, two trunk services would also be running.
This project would also be providing new means of employment. About 2,118 individuals will be offered jobs as per the estimate was done. Out of 2,118 jobs, 1,424 jobs will be related to station services, security and cleaning services. It should be worthy to mention that about 615 jobs would be related to bus operation in this Red Line Project which in turn will result in creating about 79 new jobs vacancies at the Trans Karachi Company.
If this Red Line Project is materialized then approximately 20,000 of residents will get employment since about 7%, about a million of Karachi’s population live near the Red Line Corridor.
The revenue from this Red Line BRT Project will come in various forms. It will be in the form mainly from the fares from passengers, rents from the shops and the earnings in return from the advertisement and the services offered at the stations.
According to the estimate and study were done on this project, the fares from the passengers would be the major contributor to the revenue for this project. About $ 19.47 million ( Rs 2.686 million) would be collected in the first year of Red Line Bus Service’s operation. This is a rough idea which is assumed on the fare of a ticket which would cost passengers Rs 35 on their single trip.
In the same manner, the other major part of revenue generations would be from advertisements. According to the estimate, it would be 10% of the total revenue generated from the Red Line BRT project and would be around $2.26 billion (Rs 365 million) annually.
Annually, about $ 4.35 million (Rs 600 million) would be collected from the rents of the shops at the stations. This calculation considers commercial rents rates for per square metre. It should be pertinent to mention here that this rent collection from the shops would not be enough in the maintenance and operational needs of the project but would also be able to buy the new buses and to maintain and replace the old rundown buses.
Apart from this, for the services like cleaning and security at the station the contracts will be given to the different companies.
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