Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial govt to buy another 86 new buses from China for BRT worth Rs 1 billion

Gwadar Pro

Peshawar: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government has announced to buy another 86 new buses from China for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service with an estimated cost of Pakistan Rs 1 billion.

In its annual budget for 2022-23, the provincial government informed that six new feeder routes and 86 buses would be added to the BRT. Already dozens of China-made buses are serving the public on the BRT routes.

The budget document mentioned that with this amount 86 new buses from China would be added to the BRT fleet and its new feeder routes would be made functional. With induction of these new buses, the capacity of BRT would enhance up to 350000 passengers on a daily basis.

The six new feeder routes to be included in BRT service are Hayatabad Phase-1, Nasir Bagh Road, Chamkani-Pabbi Bazaar, Warsak Road, Khyber Road and Charsadda Road Extension.

Earlier in the day, the Khyber Pakthunkhwa government presented Pakistani Rs 1,332 billion budget for financial year 2022-23 including an allocation of Rs 1,108.9 billion for the settled districts and Rs 223.1 billion for merged tribal districts.

Presenting fourth annual budget at the Khyber Pakthunkhwa Assembly, Finance Minister Taimur Salim Jhagra contended that out of Rs 223.1 billion budget for merged tribal districts, Rs 124.3 billion were funded while the remaining amount would be given by federation and others provinces under committed funding. However, this amount was yet to be received.

The minister remarked thjat the volume of current budget was Rs 913.8 billion including Rs 789.8 billion for the settled districts and Rs 124 billion for merged tribal districts.

He said Rs 60 billion were funded for merged tribal districts and the remaining amount would be provided by federating units and centre under committed funding.

Taimur Jhagra underlined that Rs 418.2 billion were allocated for development budget including Rs319.2 billion for uplift of settled districts and Rs 99 billion for merged tribal districts, adding Rs383.5 billion were committed funding while remaining would be provided by the federation and provinces that was yet to be received.