ADB approves $235m loan for Karachi’s BRT

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a

$235 million loan to help develop Karachi’s Bus Rapid Transit project.

According to a statement issued by the bank on Friday, the Karachi BRT Red Line Project will deliver the 26.6 kilometres BRT Line Red Line and its associated facilities, which will benefit 1.5 million individuals who live within a km of the Red Line BRT station.

The ADB said that over 300,000 passengers are

expected on the Red Line BRT routes daily. ADB will “partially administer” two
$100 million loans from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Agence
Française de Développement to jointly finance the project’s civil works and
equipment costs.

“There is a need for a more sustainable,

reliable, safe, and gender and environment-friendly transportation system in a
city as dense and rapidly growing as Karachi. A sustainable transportation
system will not only solve the city’s mobility issue but also its growing
pollution problem,” said ADB Principal Urban Development Specialist (Transport)
for Central and West Asia David Margonsztern.

“The BRT system, with its innovative features,

will address all these issues and would improve the overall quality of lives of
people in the city.”

The project will restructure the entire width

of the Red Line BRT corridor, including the construction of 29 stations and
dedicated lanes along the 26.6km stretch; improvement of the mixed-traffic
roadway with up to six lanes in each direction; inclusion of on-street parking
and landscaped green areas in various locations; improvement of the drainage
system to climate-proof the corridor; and installation of non-motorized
transport infrastructure such as bicycle lanes, improved sidewalks, and
energy-efficient street lights.

The project will also establish sustainable BRT

operations in Karachi by improving the capacity of relevant transport
authorities; designing the BRT business model and subsidy-free operations;
implementing a bus industry transition program, including a fleet scrapping
program and compensation mechanism; developing an effective public
communications campaign; and delivering the BRT fleet, feeder e-vehicles,
intelligent transport system, and a biogas plant.

ADB will also administer a $37.2 million loan

and an $11.8 million grant from the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The GCF grant
will finance climate change adaptation measures, including innovative drainage
features such as bioswales (landscape elements designed to concentrate or
remove debris and pollution out of surface runoff water); post-project emissions’
monitoring activities; and feeder e-vehicles.

The GCF loan, meanwhile, will finance the

biogas plant and the incremental cost of the transition from basic diesel bus
technology to compressed natural gas hybrid bus technology, with the biomethane
extracted from cattle waste.