MULTAN
The Mass Transit Project Multan is likely to be launched
either by the end of ongoing year or the beginning of next one as an
eight-month long study is being launched by the Punjab Government to
weigh the feasibility of the project, The Nation has learnt.
The
study will be conducted by a Turkish enterprise Usmani Company and its
experts will stay in Multan for the next eight months.
Sources said that
the study will determine that out of Bus, Light Rail or Metro
(underground) which system is appropriate for Multan. The experts of
Usmani Company are going to utilize Transcard and Transmodeler softwares
for conducting this study for the first time in Pakistan.
The Multan
Metro project had been promised by the Prime Minister Mian Muhammad
Nawaz Sharif while addressing a public meeting here in Multan during the
last leg of campaign before election 2013. The Chief Minister Punjab
Mian Shahbaz Sharif materialized the promise of his elder brother and
party chief by announcing Metro for three big cities of Punjab including
Multan on February 3. Although the CM claimed in his statement that the
Multan Metro would take 10 months to become functional, the project is
likely to take more time.
Multan Divisional Commissioner Sher Alam
Mehsood confirmed the launching of the study for the project. “Yes the
study is being launched and we have asked the public representatives to
submit their proposals on this project as soon as possible,” he added.
The
Public representatives have proposed different routes for the bus. A
route proposed by the Chairman of
Punjab Assembly’s Standing Committee
for Sports, Youth and Culture Mian Shahzad Maqbool Bhutta stated that
the Metro Bus should begin its journey from Vehari Chowk/General Bus
Stand and terminate at Industrial Estate via BCG Chowk, Chungi No-14,
Daulat Gate, Ghanta Ghar, Nawan Shehr, Dera Adda, Aziz Hotel Chowk,
Muzaffarabad and Industrial Estate. He also proposed that a
supplementary route between Ghanta Ghar and Bahauddin Zakariya
University via Chungi No-9 and Bosan Road should be added to the plan.
Sources said that the proposal is supported by the provincial minister
Ch. Abdul Waheed Arrain.
Similarly, senator Javed Ali Shah proposed
that the main route of Metro Bus should start from Chowk Nag Shah and
end at to-be-established New Kachehri in Matti Tal area. “Besides
residents of Multan, it will also facilitate the residents of Shujabad
and Jalalpur Pirwala tehsils too,” the senator, who has been an MNA from
Shujabad asserted.
An MPA Rana Tahir Shabbir told this scribe that
he had also forwarded his proposals by e-mail while provincial minister
Ch Abdul Waheed Arrain claimed that the project would get the city rid
of traffic problems for next 50 years.
Some public representatives,
however, oppose the project. “It’s not as good a project as being
portrayed. Multan is a congested city with narrow roads. It will bring
big devastation as the government needs to bring almost half of the city
down for widening roads for it,” they maintained while talking to this
scribe on condition of anonymity. “The government can revamp transport
system of Multan by increasing the number of small vehicles used for
public transportation with the investment of just one or two billion
rupees instead of spending dozens of billions on Metro,” they added
http://www.nation.com.pk/national/25-Feb-2014/feasibility-study-of-metro-project-on-the-cards
