Comment by Riaz Haq on February 12, 2014 at 7:58am

ADB to assist in funding a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System in Karachi, according to Dawn:

The Asian Development Bank has agreed to assist Pakistan to develop a sustainable urban transport service in Karachi through the delivery of a bus rapid transit corridor focusing on accessibility and people’s mobility, and decided to send a mission to appraise the project, it emerged on Thursday.

According to the bank, a fact-finding mission will spend the whole month of May 2015 in Karachi to initiate the project design, while the project will come for the review in the first week of July 2015 before the ADB executive board takes it up and approves financing. The ADB has approved $9.25 million for the feasibility study.

The United Nations Development Programme will participate in project designing, mainly through stakeholder engagement process and inclusive infrastructure design which includes technical design and inputs from future users.

The bus industry transition process will continue with the objective that current bus operators will become the operators of the new bus rapid transit (BRT) operations. The ADB loan for the BRT project will also allow setting up of a fleet scrapping and compensation mechanism.

The ADB released details of the project on Thursday, stating that the project will aim at organising the urban growth and public space along the selected corridor through integration of land-use and transport planning on the lines of transit-oriented development, making Karachi more pleasant to live in, providing a holistic solution for integrated urban mobility, and bearing a demonstration value as no modern mass transit system exists in the city yet.

The project outcome will improve quality of public transport along a selected corridor in Karachi. The project will consist of two inter-linked output involving BRT corridor restructuring that will include the construction of a BRT route, designed and built following international best practices and quality standards along either the Green, Red or Yellow line; sidewalks, on-street parking, mixed-traffic lanes and NMT lane along the BRT; a high-capacity drainage system along the corridor; BRT depot; and improvement of access roads for non-motorised transport and feeder services.Energy-efficient streetlights and intelligent transport systems for traffic management along the corridor will also be procured and installed under the inter-linked output of the project. The construction of associated infrastructure such as intercity bus terminals and off-street parking is likely to be considered as well.
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With limited infrastructure and low level of public services, the city’s urban transport system fails to provide mobility for all people. Car and motorcycle ownership (49.7 and 47.4 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2010) is still low but increasing fast with a growing middle class.

From 1988 to 2010, the number of registered cars in Karachi more than tripled, reaching 940,000, while the number of motorcycles quadrupled, reaching 900,000. Maintaining the same growth rate, there could be up to 2.1 million cars and 2.7 million motorcycles in 2025.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1072079/adb-ready-to-assist-brt-project

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 15, 2014 at 9:59am

Here's a Harvard University report on an urban planning conference in Karachi:

...By January, however, the event had grown into a three-day conference on South Asian cities, attracting upward of 800 people, with concurrent sessions in large tents erected for the occasion in the Pakistani port city of Karachi.

In addition to a Harvard delegation of seven, the conference drew urban design professionals, government officials, and academics from across Pakistan and elsewhere in South Asia, including India and Bangladesh. Tarun Khanna, director of Harvard’s South Asia Institute, said the event grew through regional collaboration and was symbolic of a “narrative of peace” that seeks to counterbalance the history of strife in the area.

Organizers said the conference was just the initial discussion in what they hope will be an ongoing conversation about the problems and opportunities confronting cities across the region. Further, officials at Harvard’s South Asia Institute (SAI) say the conference is both part of the Institute’s growing engagement with Pakistan and a sign of the enthusiasm of Pakistani partners for further collaboration.

SAI’s engagement is multifaceted and includes conferences and training programs in Pakistan, workshops, fellowships, and Pakistani students on Harvard’s campuses, as well as webinars spanning both locations, featuring Harvard faculty in Cambridge and viewed by students at dozens of Pakistani universities.

Meena Hewett, executive director of the South Asia Institute, said the Pakistan programs are an expression of the institute’s focus on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan. Though India is the region’s largest country, it’s important, Hewett said, that the institute promote an agenda that encompasses all of South Asia.

In addition to fostering an understanding of the country itself, Pakistan has a lot to offer to the regional dialogue, Hewett said. Pakistan is the world’s sixth-most populous nation, with a long history and enormous diversity. It is struggling with many of the same issues as many of its neighbors, including urbanization, poverty, water security, public health, religious differences, and governance.

“Beyond the narrative of violence and terrorism, there is all this good development work going on,” Hewett said.

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South Asia’s cities have a lot to learn from each other. While urban areas around the world are struggling with the same problems, the cities across South Asia share a “similar DNA,” Mehrotra said. That DNA has been instilled by shared regional history, including British colonization and enormous urban growth in the post-independence era. Among their commonalities, the region’s major cities are among the world’s largest, have undergone rapid demographic change in the last 30 years, and suffer from poor infrastructure and services, as well as a lack of political will to transform, Mehrotra said.
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Jennifer Leaning, the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, delivered a keynote speech at the January conference on climate disasters and vulnerability, and participated in two other panels on disaster response and mental health. With funding from the Karachi-based Aman Foundation, Leaning is involved in a project to improve that city’s disaster preparedness and disaster-related mental health. Late last year, two Harvard Medical School faculty members conducted needs assessment and a training program in emergency preparedness for staff at Karachi hospitals.
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http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/03/the-bright-side-of-pa...

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 18, 2014 at 10:31am

Japan's JICA funding Karachi Children's Health Institute:

KARACHI – “The Project for Improvement of Child Health Institute in Karachi” was launched today to mark the start of its construction work. The ground breaking ceremony for the project was held today in Karachi, jointly attended by Dr. Sikandar Ali Mandhro, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Environment, Coastal Development Authority, H.E. Mr. Hiroshi Inomata, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan and Mr. Mitsuyoshi Kawasaki, Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Pakistan Office.

The Government of Japan provided grant assistance worth 1.423 billion Japanese Yen (equivalent to around Rs. 1.38 billion) for this project which is implemented through JICA.

Sindh Government’s Child Health Institute receives pediatric patients from all over the northern Karachi city, whose population is approximately 4.16 million and that of children under 12 (the beneficiary group of the project) is approximately 1.77 million. However, the existing setup of this institute can provide limited medical services due to lack of facilities and equipment. Patients that require specialized pediatric medical treatment are referred to the tertiary medical facilities which are already overburdened.

At the ceremony, Ambassador of Japan Mr. Inomata said, “Providing high-quality healthcare services is one of the priority areas in Japan’s assistance to Pakistan.” Ambassador Inomata pointed out severe insufficiency in delivery of child health services in Karachi and mentioned, “thus, upon request of the Government of Sindh, Japan decided to provide a grant aid to expand facilities of the institute to deliver improved health services to children.”

Mr. Inomata shared his belief that “investment to child health is investment for the country’s prosperous future. We have to ensure that all children receive proper medical treatment.” He expressed his wish for close cooperation among the Government of Sindh, JICA, all partners and companies involved for smooth and swift implementation of the project. At the end of his remarks, the Japanese Ambassador said, “This Project will further strengthen the existing good relationship between Japan and Pakistan. Our partnership, supported by strong ownership of the local authorities, will surely bring a better future to children and the country.”

In his reply, Dr. Sikandar Ali Mandhro expressed deep gratitude to Japan’s commitment to child health in Karachi.

Speaking at the ceremony Mr. Kawasaki, Chief Representative of JICA said “this grant assistance will enable Government of Sindh to establish 250 bed scale Child Health Institute and procure approximately 500 items of the medical equipment. This Child Health Institute aims to provide advanced pediatric care and establish a strong patient referral system in Karachi City.”

Mr. Kawasaki added “I sincerely hope this new child hospital will contribute to the community for long and serve as a drive for significant improvement for child health in Sindh Province.”

http://www.pakistantribe.com/story/8114/japan-kicks-off-constructio...

Comment by Riaz Haq on April 3, 2014 at 9:57pm

Here's a Dawn story on World Bank report on infrastructure deficiency in South Asia:

ISLAMABAD: South Asia should spend as much as $2.5 trillion on infrastructure by 2020 to bring its power grids, roads and water supplies up to the standard required to serve its growing population, said a World Bank report on Wednesday.

“If South Asia hopes to meet its development goals and not risk slowing down — or even halting — growth, poverty alleviation and shared prosperity… it is essential to make closing its huge infrastructure gap a priority,” the report said in probably the first analysis of the region’s infrastructure needs.

The report, entitled “Reducing poverty by closing South Asia’s infrastructure gap”, says that “infrastructure deficiencies in South Asia are enormous, and a mix of investment in infrastructure stock and implementing supportive reforms will enable the region to close its infrastructure gap”.

Pakistan should invest $165 billion over ten years in improving infrastructure in transport, electricity, water and sanitation, solid waste, telecom and irrigation sectors, according to the report.

For the required investment in electricity sector of up to $96bn, Pakistan should generate funds through government-private sector partnership, the report said.

The average share of Pakistan in the total infrastructural investment in South Asia is only 12 per cent compared to 79 per cent by India, the report says.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1097656/s-asia-should-spend-more-to-serve-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 29, 2015 at 10:06pm

Japanese experts have prepared a 2030 plan to improve Karachi’s transport network. This involves the Karachi Circular Railway, six bus rapid transit lines and two mass transit lines. Last year Bahria Town suggested to the Sindh government that it would be happy to pay for the Blue line from Merewether Tower to Surjani Town. It has invited Enrique Penalosa to advise them and their consultant, Exponent Engineering (EE), on the Blue line.
“He will be able to help us with the social and political aspects,” said Ashar Hashmat Lodi, the director of transportation engineering at EE, adding that technical experts need the benefit of that perspective for such projects. “I am extremely hopeful about the Blue line.”

Bahria Town is understandably interested in the Blue line to Surjani Town as its master-planned gated community is located 9km from the Superhighway toll plaza. However, the rules dictate that even though Bahria made an unsolicited proposal, the Sindh government has to open the floor to others and elicit competitive bids. “The draft for the request for proposals is being prepared,” Lodi said. In the meantime, though, EE and Bahria were keen to do their homework, which is why Penalosa was being invited.
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Penalosa told The Express Tribune that he is keen to return to Karachi and especially speak on the political and technical arguments in favour of a well-done BRT. He felt that it would be wonderful to visit unplanned settlements and especially see where the city is growing. He recalled his visit to the Orangi Pilot Project where he met the late Perween Rahman.
“I remember Karachi as a city of light and blue skies,” he said in an email. “Karachi also seemed to me an extremely dynamic, creative, passionate city. The buzz of an economy moving, of people working hard, was evident everywhere; the art in trucks, the colours in the clothes, showed a creative city, a city which enjoys beauty and life.” He added, however, “But it also seemed Karachi was not a city with a clear vision of itself in the future…. [I]t was not a city very respectful of pedestrians and cyclists. As many developing country cities, it was not yet a city where it is understood that all citizens are equal and thus a bus with 90 passengers has 90 times more right to road space than a car with one. Karachi needed more dreams for itself, more dreams of pedestrian spaces and waterfronts, more clarity relative to democratic ways of distributing road space between pedestrians, bicyclists, public transport and [private vehicles].”
As mayor, Penalosa rejected proposals to build highways through Bogota, seven of them elevated. Instead he restricted private car use, especially during peak hours, and promoted public transport and bicycle use. He was nearly impeached for trying to get cars off the pavements, where they had parked for decades. It will be his experience in achieving these socially equitable solutions in politically explosive contexts from which Karachi could potentially benefit.
Bahria’s unsolicited proposal comes at a time when there has been a genuine push from several quarters to solve Karachi’s traffic crisis. The prime minister announced Rs17 billion for the Green line last year. The government has been in talks with the Asian Development Bank on the Red line and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy has been exploring the Yellow line.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/823852/mass-transit-global-brts-expert-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 5, 2015 at 10:07am

Business tycoon and Bahria Town chairman Malik Riaz on Thursday announced his plans of building a 54-kilometre expressway in Karachi.

Bahria Town will lend the Sindh provincial government Rs42 billion to execute the project, which Riaz said would be completed in 11-months time. The loan will have a repayment period of 15 years.

The project will enable approximately a quarter million people to travel on the expressway on a daily basis, said the Bahria Town chairman.

Riaz added that an agreement has also been reached with a private company for the procurement of 150 public transport buses for use on the expressway.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-174161-Bahria-Town-to-build-54km-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 4, 2015 at 9:32am

PM #NawazSharif inaugurates #Islamabad Metro Bus project: 'This is a changing #Pakistan' Free #WiFi onboard

http://www.dawn.com/news/1186130

The 23-kilometre line, where 68 air-conditioned buses will carry an estimated 135,000 passengers a day along exclusive, signal-free lanes, links the neat, leafy capital with its sprawling twin city Rawalpindi.

The project was built in 13 months — six months longer than planned — at a cost of 44.84 billion rupees, and will use buses from Turkey.

With gleaming grey tiles, escalators, elevators and modern glass and steel structures with wavy red roofs, the 24 stations of the new line would not look out of place in a more developed country.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 9, 2015 at 4:47pm

A startling sight in #Pakistan: Fast, affordable, air-conditioned buses #Islamabad #MetroBus http://wpo.st/IY8L0

For hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis, the miserable, sweaty, cramped commute is coming to an end.

Pakistan, one of the world’s fastest-growing countries, has long lacked an efficient public transportation system. Instead, Pakistan’s 180 million residents have jammed onto unreliable buses and vans prone to breakdowns and grisly traffic accidents.

The haphazard transportation system — which sometimes involves passengers riding on the roofs of buses or sitting on top of each other in taxis or passenger vans — has been the butt of jokes here and abroad. But now, in two of Pakistan’s largest cities, residents are enjoying new mass transit options that even commuters in Western nations might envy.

Rapid-bus systems that together cost $700 million are running in Lahore and the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the capital. In both metropolitan areas, more than five dozen air-conditioned buses circulate in dedicated lanes that use new bridges and tunnels to avoid traffic lights. Commuters wait no more than three minutes for a bus, reducing overcrowding while slashing average commute times by half. And at about 20 cents a ride, the heavily subsidized systems are accessible even to the poor.

Riders “feel respected, they feel more at home, and they can commute with dignity,” said Sibtain Fazal-i-Haleem, chief executive of the Punjab Metro Bus Authority, which manages both bus systems. “It’s a step toward modernization, it’s a step toward development, and it’s an improvement we should have done much earlier.”

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In 2013, Shahbaz Sharif’s provincial government spent $300 million to open the 17-mile Lahore bus route. Ridership has grown to about 140,000 passengers daily, officials said. Last year, the two brothers pooled provincial and federal money to construct the 14-mile, $400 million Islamabad-Rawalpindi route.

Using a 24-hour labor force, it was built with Dubai-like speed, opening last week after just 13 months of construction. The route includes 24 stations between working-class Rawalpindi and the wealthier capital, where most well-paying jobs and government agencies are located.

Within hours of its launch, residents flooded into the stations. Now, in a country where the average income is just $1,513 per year, the new service is offering a window into how transformational mass transit can be for the poor and middle classes.

The buses feature rechargeable fare cards, screens that show their current location, recorded messages announcing next stops and a cooling system that showers passengers with a final burst of chilled air before they disembark into the hot Pakistani summer.
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Sardar Muhammad, 85, emerged from one station carrying a shepherd’s stick.

“I never imagined I would see such facilities in my life,” said Muhammad, a farmer who lives on the outskirts of Lahore. He said he recently learned how to use the system for trips into town. “Traveling earlier was very slow, like using a donkey cart.”

Despite all the glowing reviews, questions remain about whether Pakistan’s chronically cash-strapped governments will be able to maintain the subsidized service.

But Kaiser Bengali, a prominent Pakistani economist, said the cost of the system should also factor in what he expects will be heightened productivity from the workforce.

“They used to have to spend an hour-and-a-half, two hours getting to their office in crowded buses, hanging out of buses,” Bengali said. “By the time they reached their office, their mood was as crumpled as their clothes.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-startling-sight-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 27, 2015 at 8:41am

#Lahore metro train: #China to provide $1.63 billion loan | Business Recorder http://www.brecorder.com/market-data/stocks-a-bonds/0:/1249721:laho...$1-63-billion-loan/ …

China will provide a loan of $1.626 billion to Pakistan for Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project, informed sources told Business Recorder. According to sources, Pakistan and China have reached a consensus on the loan amount at a mutually agreed composite interest rate. The officials of the two countries discussed the financial components of the project during the fifth Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) held on November 12, 2015 in Karachi.

According to documents available with Business Recorder, the loan agreement will be finalized subject to approval by competent authorities in the two countries with a view to ensuring the agreed timelines for implementation of the project. The JCC also agreed to explore other alternate financing mechanisms for future CPEC projects. It was proposed that the relevant stakeholders in China and Pakistan should come up with concrete proposals for approval by JCC in consultation with one another.

About Gwadar Port, the documents further revealed that both sides agreed that the meeting of Gwadar Joint Working Group (JWG) should be held at an early date so that projects and other cooperation initiatives are expedited in a systematic way. JCC noted that the issues relating to finalization of bids for the two big projects should be resolved on an urgent basis so that the progress of two small infrastructure projects in Gwadar, ie, East Bay Expressway (EBE) on interest free loan basis and New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA) on grant basis are not delayed. The Pakistani side requested that the two small projects should be unbundled from the two big projects and the Chinese side should complete review of the project documents as early as possible and nominate the company in case of NGIA and allow the Pakistani side to continue with the ongoing bidding process for EBE.

Both sides agreed that water- and energy-related projects should be given top priority and processed in a speedy manner by the respective working groups. The Pakistani side requested the Chinese side to fast track the financing for a technical & vocational institute at Gwadar; and the two countries agreed to sign the development of "Gwadar smart port city" master plan at the earliest.

Pakistan suggested that the following projects to be included in the second phase of CPEC list: (i) Solid Waste Management System including Recycling Plant for Gwadar City; (ii) Intercept Drain for Flood Protection and Storm Water Drainage System for Gwadar City; and (iii) Digitization of Land Record of GDA Master Plan (GIS based).

Both sides agreed to support and explore potential business opportunities in China and Pakistan with specific reference to CPEC development initiative. The Pakistani side suggested holding Chinese and Pakistan Products International Trade Expo annually in Gwadar Free Zone to promote its status as an international mall.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 17, 2016 at 10:04am

#Japan's #JICA offers to finance #Karachi #KCR mega project for #Metro mass transit. #Pakistan http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/pakistan/276589-japan-offers-fina... …

The Japanese government is ready to fund the revival of Karachi Circular Railways (KCR) project in port city of Karachi, Japan's Economic and Development Counsellor in Pakistan, Takashi Harada said on Tuesday.

He said, "it is a mega project of a mega city and Japanese government is still positive for it."

Talking to APP here, Takashi Harada said, his government is positive to support and finance this project.

"We are discussing relocation of people with the government of Sindh province," he said and added, "We need mega support and mega facilitation from the concerned departments for carrying out this project."

It may be mentioned here that making operational the KCR would help in mitigating the sufferings of millions of Karachi commuters as there is huge demand of urban transport in the mega city of Pakistan.

Encroachments patronized by land mafia have been considered a major hurdle in the revival of KCR, but now the railway ministry has allocated 250 acres of land to shift all encroachments from the route of KCR and resettle the squatters on this land.

The revival of KCR would be a gift for Karachiites by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

This may be noted that the KCR has a total route length of 43.24 km out of which 15.68 km is on ground, 23.86km elevated and 2.28km in trench with a 1.42km bridge in between.

The total number of stations would be 24 including 10 on ground, 12 elevated and 2 trench stations. The system would use electric powered trains.

The project will be run by Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC) as a public private partnership project under technical assistance from JICA.

The city of Karachi has seven industrial zones which were playing important role in the national economy.

This project would provide more job opportunities to people and their standard of life would rise with the additional income.

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