Rapid Bus Transit System – A Relief for Lahore

Pakistan has been going through a bad patch and the corruption scandals have been hampering the investment from coming into the country. The international institutions are rating Pakistan negatively and the country’s repute has been damaged badly due to such reports. In such times, when the entire country is going through this turmoil, there is one unit of the federation that stands out among all and it is Punjab. Over the past five years if there is any place in the country where foreign direct investment has come then it is Punjab and the only reason behind the trust of the foreign investors in this province is better governance.

 

One of the biggest achievements of Punjab Government in this regard is the Rapid Bus Transit System which has been set up in Lahore with the cooperation of Turkish government. The friendly states have always enjoyed cordial relations with each other but the current Punjab government has introduced the level of mutual cooperation and trade to new horizons. This, in itself is a great achievement that the two major Islamic countries have come together to help each other out in whatever ways they can. A major investment in the city of Lahore was made by Turkish government is the RBTS and it is a milestone achieved by the leaders of both the countries.

The current Punjab government is run by the conservative right wing political party of PakistanMuslim League (Nawaz), the largest political party of Punjab whose leader Nawaz Sharif is a major contender of the Premiership of the country in the upcoming general elections that are to be held in the first half of 2013. The party has been pro-development in all its tenures in power and has been building airports, roads and bridges in major cities like Karachi and Lahore and Motorway which is the biggest construction project in Pakistan’s history was also carried out under its government in 1998-99. The leader of the party is himself a successful industrialist and thus knows the importance of business and commerce in shaping the economy of the country and ways to improve it.

The current project that is under discussion is the Rapid Bus Transit System which is the biggest intra-city transportation system in the country and first of its kind as well. This was the foremost requirement in the biggest city and business hub of the country that is Karachi but the federal and provincial governments, like other problems, have been insensitive to this issue of the City of Lights as well. The main features of the RBTS are as under:

1)      27 kilometer long route beginning from Shahdrah Town to Gajju Mata near Kasur district.

2)      160 passenger space in each bus and a bus coming in after every three minutes.

3)      The modern electronic ticketing system has been set up that is hardly seen in the third world.

4)      Tickets will be available at reasonable prices with world class transportation quality.

5)      The buses are equipped with modern air-conditioning system that keeps the temperature inside the bus mild to make the journey comfortable.

This will be of great assistance in the coming years as the traffic in the metropolitan city of Lahore has become a major issue and the long wait that the citizens need to do on the traffic signals was becoming unbearable. This was definitely the need of the hour that the public transport in the city was made respectable enough that the car owners feel it more convenient to travel by bus than by their personal cars. As per the estimates, Ferozepur Road, which is the busiest road of the city, witnesses 427,000 vehicles passing it every day. The traffic hazards were bound to be created with such enormous amount of cars, trucks, buses and motorbikes using the road every day. On the other hand the fuel consumption is also a major issue and the rising prices internationally have made it almost impossible for the common man to make the both ends meet.

 

It was these reasons that the Government of Punjab had in mind and that it was bent on resolving. RBTS will certainly help a lot in this regard and the modern LTC buses that were imported during the last couple of years have also helped curbing the transportation problems on other busy roads like The Mall, Multan Road and the Jail Road. The citizens of other provinces also express gratitude for Lahore getting one of its major issues resolved. This service that the Punjab Government has provided to its capital city has also inclined the citizens in other provinces towards the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and might help the party to get some good chunk of votes from other provinces as well.