January 4, 2019: The government has released an amount of Rs1 billion for the construction of infrastructure and allied works for Metro Bus Services from Peshawar Morr to New Islamabad International Airport under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2018-19.
The total cost of the 25.6 kilometer metro bus extension project is estimated at Rs16.46 billion out of which Rs6.46 billion had been spent up to June 2018, according to latest data issued by ministry of Planning, Development, and Reform.
The data shows that the government had allocated an amount of Rs.2.5 billion for the project for the year 2018-19.
The citizens of the twin cities are eagerly waiting for the project to be completed as currently there was not any public transport to the New Airport.
They say that taxi drivers charge more than Rs1, 000 from Islamabad or Rawalpindi to the new airport which is not affordable for majority passengers.
They demanded the government to allocate all the required funds for the project and complete it as early as possible to facilitate the commuters.
According to details the Rs16 billion project has been divided in four packages including Package 1 from Peshawar Morr to National University of Science and Technology (NUST), package 2 from NUST to GT road, package 3 from GT road to Motorway interchange, and package 4 from motorway interchange to New Airport.
The length of package 1 is 8 kilometer, length of package 2 is 3.8 kilometer, and length of package 3 is 8.3 kilometer while that of package 4 is 5.5 kilometer.
The route will have 9 bus stations including NHA station, G-10 station, Nust station, G-13 Station, G T Road station, Badana Kalan station, M-1-M2 Junction station and Airport Station. The project will have eight bridges, 14 underpasses and 28 culverts.
