TransPeshawar dismisses allegations about award

[ad_1]

PESHAWAR: TransPeshawar on Sunday termed the allegation about the award as false and baseless. Through a statement issued here, TransPeshawar spokesperson Umair Khan said that the Gold designation of BRT Peshawar was based on the international evaluation tools for assessing the Bus Rapid Transit System.

He said that all BRTs around the globe were evaluated on the same set tools of evaluation by the technical committee of the BRT Standard. The Technical Committee of BRT Standard comprised of globally renowned organizations and experts of BRT, he added.

The spokesperson said these organizations included World Bank, UN Habitat, UNEP, BARR Foundation, Rockefeller foundation, Climate works foundation, GIZ, Despacio, ICCT, ADB etc.

He said that after independent evaluation by experts, the status of the BRTs were updated on the World BRT ranking, the only platform in the world to do so.

“The presence of Peshawar BRT with highest score of 97 out of 100 and status of gold standard designation can be seen on https://www.itdp.org/library/standards-and-guides/the-bus-rapid-transit- standard/best-practices-2013/ The authenticity of the award speaks for itself,” he added.

He said that the “Urban Transport pre-feasibility study for Peshawar” was completed in 2014, the organizations involved were City Development Initiative for Asia, Urban Policy Unit, P&DD, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ADB and Infrastructure Project Development Facility.

The Project Preparatory and Technical Assistance (PPTA), which included preliminary design and detailed feasibility was awarded to Desain Mobilitas Indonesia (DESMOBI), he clarified.

The study was completed in 2016 and DESMOBI provided preliminary design and feasibility study.

The DESMOBI gets inputs from Pakistani firm Think Transportation and USA based firm BRT Planning International and other individuals. The detailed design was prepared by Mott Macdonald Pakistan and Mott Macdonald London.

The statement claimed that the Institute for Transportation Development Policy (ITDP) was never awarded with any feasibility or design contracts. Top BRT consultants around the world are linked with ITDP for knowledge sharing and policy development, similar is the case with DesMobi which is associated with ITDP Indonesia.

The involvement of ITDP directly or indirectly into a project does not qualify any project for Gold Standard rating. The ITDP has active offices in India and Indonesia and they are involved in many projects of BRT, but none of the projects in these regions ever get gold standard ranking.

The transparency of the BRT global ranking can be seen by the fact that any individual or organization can access and submit any system score on set criteria to committee and then committee assesses and re-evaluate and ranks the system accordingly.

The ranking system ranks all the world class BRTs independently by experts with no influence, and the system is open and transparent, and involves 15 top credible and most trusted organizations around the world.

The BRT Peshawar ranked as Gold Standard based on its services to all sectors of society, number of routes, convenient services to specially determined people, and promoting clean technology and non-motorized traffic.

[ad_2]