ISLAMABAD: Contrary to the claims of Chairman PTI Imran Khan who says Rawalpindi / Islamabad Metro can be built with just Rs4 billion, the PTI-led KP government has prepared a pre-feasibility study for constructing a metro bus in Peshawar at an astounding cost of Rs51.67 billion.

This pre-feasibility study done by transport department of Planning and Development of KP government has exposed the claims of PTI leadership on the ongoing Metro Bus Project being executed by federal and Punjab governments in Rawalpindi and Islamabad with the estimated cost of Rs47 billion.

The cost of Rawalpindi / Islamabad metro bus project is less than what the KP government has estimated for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for Peshawar city.

The summary of pre-feasibility study conducted by the KP government, a copy of which is available with The News, reveals that fully elevated Metro Bus project in Peshawar from Chamkani to Hayatabad Complex, having length of 27 kilometer (KM), is projected to cost Rs51.67 billion.

The summary states that the study is a Pre-feasibility study that was completed in four months. The study further recommends conducting a feasibility study that will take one year to complete. The study recommends a full-fledged study.

It further states that Corridor 2 is selected as priority corridor 1 to be operated under the Bus Rapid Transit mode. The route of corridor connects Northern bypass/Motorway interchange/Chamkani on Peshawar-Rawalpindi Road/GT road, Kabul bus terminal, Daewoo bus terminal, Peshawar bus terminal, Frontier College for woman, Cantt railway station, airport road, Peshawar University, Hayatabad Medical Complex.

The study recommends that corridor 6 should also be evaluated as an alternate corridor in the feasibility study. The corridor 6 consists of Chamkani Terminus to Hayatabad Terminus via rail corridor around the airport (length 26.2 Km). The pre-feasibility study recommends Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for priority corridor.

The study recommends two years for the construction of the corridor. The study gives three options for BRT along with their respective capital costs as follows:

i. At-grade BRT: Capital cost of Rs11.615 billion,

ii. Partially elevated BRT: Rs17.977 billion,

iii. Fully elevated BRT: Rs51.675 billion.

The rates have been calculated as per international practices cited in ADB literature.

The salient features of the Priority Corridor 2 Peshawar Rapid Transit will have route length of 27.2 Km, 32 median stations with single platform, using this service by 223,000 passengers per day.

There will be 61 articulated buses required. The system includes E-ticketing, Depot, Control Centre, CCTV and Security.

The shortcomings of the study also illustrate that the estimated Capital cost of the project for three options are based on similar practices in Pakistan and may further increase. The overall length of the elevated section is not decided; therefore the cost of BRT can increase further.

The rider ship is estimated based on traffic counts at 10 locations. A transport modeling study was not conducted due to which the estimated rider ship may be questioned. The proposed cost of the feasibility study is unreasonably high, it further states.

PTI’s rate of inflation

Party leaders in Pakistan rarely hold a press conference devoted exclusively to economic issues. On August 4, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan addressed his first such press conference. Except for the notice to be served on his favourite maulana, Imran said he would focus on prices and inflation. In full view of the media and the viewing public, he began with the fantastic claim that the rate of inflation in July — the first month of the current fiscal year 2013-14 — was as high as 24 per cent. He attributed the figure to the official sources. The press was informed that this rate of inflation was the highest in the past three years. Experts sitting on his left seemed unperturbed. The media persons present were unshaken. Despite Imran’s reminder that the press conference was on inflation, there were questions on the Maulana, the contempt notice, the jailbreak and drones, but none on inflation and prices.

Thinking that I might have watched casually or heard incorrectly, I looked up the papers the next morning. There was very little reporting of what Imran said on inflation. One leading paper mentioned the figure without questioning it. There was, of course, no clarification issued by the PTI, either. To doubly ensure that I heard what I heard, I watched the full press conference again on the PTIOfficialVideos website. There it was again, loud and clear, a rate of inflation of 24 per cent in the month gone by. Wonder of wonders! The over-vigilant PML-N’s propaganda machine and the cool but canny government spokesperson missed this godsend opportunity to sell another instance of the PTI displaying its inexperience.
Political leaders are not expected to know exact figures. They must, however, be familiar with the broad orders of magnitude, especially when they call a press conference with the express purpose of dilating on economic matters. A margin of error of one to two percentage points on either side need not raise any eyebrows. But to claim that inflation is 24 per cent in July when it is actually 8.3 per cent shows how far removed one is from the facts of a matter that seriously affects the daily life of the mass of the people.
Rather than being the highest in the past three years, 8.3 per cent is the lowest rate of inflation for July in the past three years. It has come down from 9.6 per cent in 2012-13 and 12.4 in 2011-12. This was the Consumer Price Index or the CPI, the standard measure of inflation. What has increased is the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), a subset of 53 sensitive items in the CPI. In July 2013, the SPI increased to 9.8 per cent from 7.7 per cent in July 2012. It has, however, sharply declined from 13.1 per cent in July 2011.
Even here, the 24 per cent increase is nowhere to be seen. Only the Wholesale Price Index was high at 20.3 per cent, but that was in July 2011. In July 2012, it sharply fell to 7.2 per cent and further down to 6.6 per cent in July 2013.
There is only one item — 10kg bag of wheat flour — the price of which increased by 24.4 per cent in July 2013. Of course, this is the most important item of common man’s consumption with a weight of 17.5 per cent. But a course in Econ 101 will tell you that an inflation index does not consist of only one item!
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2013.

بھی ابھی بیٹھے بیٹھاہے میں تحریک انصاف کی معاشی پالیسی پڑھنے لگا اور میری آنکھیں کھلی کی کھلی رہ گیئں 

کیونکہ جن ٹیکسوں کے نفاز پر آج اسد عمر ،عمران خان اور ان کے لاوارث کتے بھونک رہے ہیں تحریک انصاف اپنی پالیسی میں ان ٹیکسوں کے نفاذ کا وعدہ کر چکی ہے یہی نہیں ریلوے کو بورڈ کے ماتحت کرنا کے علاوہ سبسٹڈی ختم کر کے سارا فوکس لوڈشیڈنگ پر کرنا ہے 

اگر آپ کو کوئی فرق ملے تو مجھے ضرور بتاییں 

لنک یہ رہا 

LOKI

‬http://www.insaf.pk/Policies/Economy/tabid/317/Default.aspx#.Ubv_-fnCa_I