After the completion of the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), its operations for first three years will be managed by the Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (SIDCL), a federal government’s organisation, under a formal agreement between the Sindh government and the SIDCL.
This was decided on Wednesday during a meeting chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah. The meeting also decided that after running the BRT for three years, the SIDCL would transfer the project to the provincial government.
The Green Line project’s chief executive officer (CEO), Sualeh Farooqui, briefed the meeting about a proposal put forward by the prime minister to enter into a formal agreement with the Sindh government so that the SIDCL could operate the Green Line service for first three years after its completion.
The CM approved the proposal and directed the transport department to prepare a draft agreement. To this, Farooqi said he had already shared a draft agreement with all the stakeholders, including the provincial transport department and the Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA).
The agreement must be prepared in consultation with all the stakeholders, the CM said. He directed Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah to get the draft agreement examined by consultants of the transport department and then report to him so that it could be signed as soon as possible.
The CM also directed all the relevant departments, including the transport and the local government department, to remove all the impediments in the completion and operation of the Green Line BRT project.
The project has already been delayed, he remarked, adding that all the required notifications with respect to the allotment and handing over of land for a depot must be issued without any delay.He directed the Green Line CEO to expedite work on the project so that its operations could be started next year.
The meeting was also attended by Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, Transport Minister Awais Shah, Planning and Development Board Chairperson Naheed Shah, World Bank Acting Country Director Melinda Goods, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, SIDCL Chairman Samar Ali Khan, Local Government Secretary Khalid Hyder Shah, Transport Secretary Abbas Detho, Yellow Line Project Director Rasheed Mughal, Green Line Chief Finance Officer Zubair Channa and others.