PM Shehbaz Sharif inaugurates metro bus service to Islamabad airport
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday formally inaugurated Islamabad metro bus service from Peshawar Mor to New Islamabad International Airport.
The prime minister was accompanied by Turkey’s Ambassador to Pakistan Mustafa Yurdakul, Chinese Chargé d’affaires Pang Chunxue and members of Parliament.
Initially, as many as 13 buses will run on the Peshawar Mor-Islamabad airport route. This will be the first bus service on this route and will facilitate thousands of commuters on a daily basis.
Addressing the ceremony here in Islamabad, the prime minister thanked China and Turkish governments for the Islamabad metro bus project. He also thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for infrastructure projects under China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Shehbaz Sharif said that former PM Nawaz Sharif laid the foundation stone of project in 2017 and it was supposed to be completed by 2018. “The project faced delays due to the incompetency of previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government,” he said.
“The actual cost of the project was Rs16 billion,” he said, adding that this project was delayed by four years like other projects due to the incompetence of PTI government.
“The Islamabad metro bus project was delayed despite the availability of funds,” PM said and added that the project should not have been delayed by four months.
Lambasting the previous government, the premier said that PTI also delayed the construction of Lahore’s Orange Line Metro Train project by filing petitions in the courts.
He said that residents of Islamabad can avail metro bus rides free of cost during the month of Ramazan.
It is pertinent to mention here that shortly after assuming his office on April 12, Prime Minister Shehbaz announced that he would launch Metro Bus Service to Islamabad airport within five days.
He directed the Capital Development Authority, the Ministry of Interior Affairs and National Highway Authority to complete all the arrangements for running the metro bus service on the route.
The project was inaugurated way back in 2017 by the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and was to be completed by August 2018, but the work on the project lingered on.