PESHAWAR: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that Peshawar will be one of the three cities in the world being recognised at the 2022 Sustainable Transport Award ceremony in Washington DC, United States on 9 February.
The ADB said that Peshawar has been nominated for its “state of the art, gender and environment friendly Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) System”. The BRT is financed by the Asia Development bank and the French government.
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Chairman Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting Senator Faisal Javed also confirmed the development, saying that Peshawar has been nominated among the three cities in the world for Sustainable Transport Awards.
He claimed that the cities have been shortlisted for transforming streets, prioritizing sustainability and expanding access mobility for all residents. “It further says despite Covid-19 challenges changing every facet of life, including residents’ mobility. These nominated cities have proven that remarkable things are possible with strong political will, public support and participation, dogged implementation, and great vision,” the senator said in a Twitter post.
The KP government had claimed that the project, which was started at a cost of about Rs70 billion, would carry more than 360,000 passengers daily. According to the PTI government, the project will benefit the poor and middle class as citizens. Earlier thousands of people would use to travel from Chamkani to Karkhano Market in local transport, such the decades old buses and ford vanes, for which they have to pay up to Rs80. But now the officials said that after the modern transport facility, like BRT, there is no space for old smoke-emitting minibuses and wagons in the provincial capital Peshawar.
Therefore, the government has banned old buses and wagons on the BRT route. The transport department has issued a notification banning old mazda bus and wagon, saying that is one of the major sources of pollution in the city. The owners of old buses and wagon would be paid compensation according to the prescribed formula.