Confirmatory Green Bus Route Study for Implementing CNG Bus System as Public Transport in Karachi

Primary Disciplines:

• Public Transport Planning & Design
• Public Transport Strategic Policy & Need Assessment
• Public Transport Regulation & Controls
• Public Transport Operational Planning
• Support for Development of Financial Model under PPP

JICA Person Trip Study in 2005 revealed that 60% of residents of Karachi travel by Public Transport. A total of 6.9 million people in Karachi use buses every day. To support this demand there were 145 operating bus routes in the city with about 6,000 total buses. In order to further strengthen public transport system & facilitate public transport users of Karachi the then City District Government of Karachi (CDGK) planned to introduce 4,000 buses running on CNG in the city in 5 years’ time. In its first stage busses were planned to operate on 40 routes covering a network of about 1,323 km. The plan was to bring these buses under a Public – Private Partnership (PPP) mode so that private investors could join hands with the government for bringing improved public transport system. The Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF), a subsidiary of Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan represented the Federal Government for facilitation of PPP Transaction. Exponent Engineers were hired to facilitate IPDF and KMTC on ascertaining operational plan and parameters for bus operations on each of the identified route. Following were the project objectives:

• Quantify the existing levels of demand and supply of Public Transport on identified routes.
• Public Transport Prioritization.
• Identify any problems or bottlenecks in their operation and also provide solutions recommendations, if required.
• Recommend other Green routes.

The projects revealed that in Phase I about 1,380 CNG buses (each with 70 to 100 passenger capacities) shall be introduced and later on these numbers would then be increased to 4,000 in 5 years’ time. The project shall facilitate existing buses users of the city and would also help KMTC and CDGK in phasing out old and outdated Public Transport System with an Efficient, Safe and Efficient Public Transport System.