Red Line | Pakistan

KARACHI: In a major blow to hopes of easing Karachi’s transportation crisis anytime soon, the Sindh government’s decision to cancel the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line construction contract has been declared “unlawful, invalid, null and void”. The ruling was delivered by the Dispute Resolution Board after the Sindh High Court asked the parties to approach the forum. The Dispute Board’s decision also delivered an extraordinary indictment of the very agency entrusted with executing the project — TransKarachi — questioning its institutional capacity and pointing out its lack of experienced project management needed to administer a project of this magnitude and complexity. The contract requires both the employer (TransKarachi/Sindh government) and the contractor to resolve the dispute through an independent Dispute Board before resorting to formal court lawsuits. The Sindh government had announced termination of the BRT Red Line project’s key segment called Lot-2 from Mosamiyat to Numaish, over “lack of progress...

KARACHI: Hours after the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) blamed the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line for the tragic death of a three-year-old boy in an open manhole, the project’s management hit back, rejecting the allegation as “a serious oversight”, igniting a rare public showdown between two government bodies already under scrutiny for Karachi’s crumbling infrastructure. First it was an inquiry report by the KMC on the incident which attributed the tragedy to the “carelessness” of officials of the Red Line project and a department store adjacent to where the incident took place. The body of the child, who died after falling into an open manhole near Nipa in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Sunday night, was found on Monday, around 15 hours after the incident. The report by the KMC said that the department had received instructions from Mayor Murtaza Wahab and the municipal commissioner to initiate an operation for recovering the body of the child from the drain. Assistant commissioner among five officials suspend...

• Sharjeel terms relocating utility connections a major challenge in construction • Says govt aims to digitise entire transport department by 2026 KARACHI: Replying to lawmakers’ written and verbal queries during the Question Hour in the Sindh Assembly, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon informed the house on Friday that the provincial transport department was not responsible for delays in completion of the much-awaited Red Line-Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. Mr Memon, who also holds the portfolios of transport and information department, said every aspect of the Red Line project was being monitored by local experts and international consultants. He said that work was underway on major development schemes in the city, and progress was being made rapidly on two sections of the Yellow Line BRT with a bridge expected to be completed by August. In reply to a verbal question raised by Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan Dr Fouzia Hameed, the minister acknowledged that occasional delays might occur due to te...