The authority has procured a total of 30 buses from a Chinese bus manufacturing company, out of which 15 are ready for shipment to Pakistan while rest of the 15 are in the final stages of their manufacturing.
Due to covid-19 restrictions imposed by China, the road authority has decided to do pre- shipment inspection of available buses through third parties to avoid further delays.
The 12-metre long buses having orange colour are expected to be landed in Pakistan in mid of next month after which CDA is preparing to start test drive through manual ticketing as there is a delay in the instalment of automated systems.
CDA took over the project in March last year on the direction of the federal government from National Highway Authority.
The corridors and stations of the metro track have already been constructed and now command and control, ticketing, station management, cleanliness and security systems were to be completed.
The road authority awarded a contract to install instruments on said metro track but the same contract was cancelled due to certain reasons and now it has flouted a fresh tender and deadline to submit the bids is 10th of March.
Meanwhile, the road authority also gives advertisements to hire the services of staff on contract basis to run the operations of said metro bus service in addition to the procurement of the services of a bus operator in this regard.
According to the plan, 24 buses would operate from Peshawar Mor to N5 bus station near G T Road while six others, having extra space for luggage would run from N5 to the airport round the clock.
In March 2021, the NHA, after construction of the corridor and stations, handed over the project to the CDA.
The NHA had launched work on the 25.6km-long track from Peshawar Mor to IIA worth Rs16 billion in Jan 2017. The project was supposed to be completed in Aug 2018 but its civil work was completed earlier this year.