Shaheer Ahmed
Sustainable transport is the need of the hour. Now when there is climate change and air quality is declining day by day, sustainability is the only choice left. Public Transport facilitates the commuters who cannot afford their vehicles. The developed countries have the best public transport systems. In the past few years, Pakistan has also tried to improve and upgrade its public transport. Metro(Rawalpindi &Islambad), Orange Train(Lahore), Green Buses (Karachi), and Peshawar BRT are some of the few initiatives. The good news is Peshawar BRT has been mentioned honorably in the Global Sustainable Transport Award 2022. This indeed is a proud moment as being mentioned amongst the world’s leading cities.
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
The award was given by the ‘Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)’ which is a leading ‘global organization that promotes and develops different forms of environmentally sustainable mobility.’ The cities were awarded according to ‘improving mobility for all residents, reducing transportation greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, and improving safety and access for cyclists and pedestrians.’ The projects that qualified for the awards included:
- public transport (e.g BRT, Metro rail)
- cycling and walking (e.g cycle share, pedestrian improvements)
- travel demand management (e.g parking, congestion pricing)
- sustainable urban development (e.g transit-oriented development)
- urban freight (e.g city-wide freight plan, last-mile solutions)
The awards were given in a virtual ceremony.
Peshawar BRT has been facilitating more than 250, 000 commuters daily. Umair Khan, TransPeshawar spokesman said, “Peshawar BRT has been internationally recognized as ‘honourable mention’ for Sustainable Transport Award-2022 for being an innovative sustainable transport project for facilitating mobility and reducing the environmental pollution.” He said that it was a proud moment that it had been nominated amongst the 31 cities, which included cities from India, the US, Russia, Canada, South Korea, etc.
Peshawar BRT reached its highest ever daily ridership count of 254,000 passengers.
Next in line => Increasing BRT buses this year, extension to Nowshera, more Feeder routes and increasing timing of ER09. pic.twitter.com/IDApbGRBaS
— PTI (@PTIofficial) January 18, 2022
Nominated along with 31 countries
He said that ‘getting recognized on an international platform competing with 31 nominees/countries, BRT Peshawar stood out as a result of its untiring efforts of providing exceptional public transport services for men and women and playing an integral role in the socio-economic development of the city. The Honourable Mention is surely a matter of pride for Pakistan and the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.’
Well done KP govt for getting international recognition for the sustainable impact of peshawar BRT. Congratulations to @IMMahmoodKhan and @PervaizKhattak pic.twitter.com/EFi9SWL8hj
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) December 2, 2021
He said that ‘the people of Peshawar and KPK have acknowledged the role of BRT in the city and the transformation of the state-of-the-art public transport system in the provincial capital.’
Currently, Peshawar BRT has 158 environment-friendly buses and 9 commuter need-based routes. The success of BRT is due to the trust of the people of Peshawar. More buses will be added to the system in the latter half of 2022 along with the new routes.
