Post Implementation Evaluation of Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) Rawalpindi-Islamabad

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and increased motorization are becoming the cause of severe congestion and unstable transportation system on streets and roads of metropolitan cities throughout the world. These not only affect the traffic, but have negative impacts on environment, economy and social well-being of people as well. To cope with such problems, a number of congestion mitigation strategies are available. Provision of mass transit system (MTS) has found to be a very successful strategy, under which the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) has found to be an eminent one. A BRT provides fast, comfortable, economical and environmentally compatible mean of transportation. That’s why BRTS is getting rapid popularity in developing countries. In Pakistan, the first of this kind of project was started in Lahore, the capital city of Punjab province. After successful implementation and a very positive response from the general public, it was decided to carry out such a project for the twin cities Islamabad-Rawalpindi. Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan with a population of 2 million, and the population of the twin cities is over 4.5 million inhabitants. The Islamabad-Rawalpindi BRTS operations were started in June 2015 and the project is successfully operational up till now. Now the point of concern is that whether this BRT project is fulfilling the needs and objectives, for which it was implemented. So, due to this reason there was a great need to carry out a research work to assess the BRT system. With this background this research study focused on the evaluation of BRTS Rawalpindi- Islamabad. The evaluation framework comprised of four main performance indicators which include transportation, environmental, safety and economic impacts. Transportation impacts evaluation was the key performance indicator and was further divided into eight sub-indicators. The methodology was the detailed analysis of each of these indictors. In the end, based on the results of analysis, it was concluded that the implementation of BRTS project has brought positive and beneficial impacts in terms of transportation aspects, road safety has been improved and environmentally hazardous emissions have reduced. Fare analysis revealed an inappropriate current fare level. The project was found economically not viable as the project costs exceed the project benefits. Economic analysis incorporating only the annual costs and benefits proved the project as economically viable. In the end recommendations were provided for the improvements in the project and the works to be done in future.