Impact of Socioeconomic Conditions due to Delays in the Completion of Urban Transit: A Case Study of Peshawar Bus Transit
Abstract
Abstract Views: 0
The city of Peshawar needed an organized public transportation system for decades. The provincial government has recently finished mega project of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and City Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA). The project started in 2017 and could not meet the completion deadlines, and the delay had economic and social implications. This research presented the public transport challenges in Peshawar, the characteristics of the BRT project, an analysis of the delayed completion, and its reasons and effects. In addition to the literature review, the researchers collected first-hand data through a survey from three types of respondents. In the interviews, officials and experts commented on the reasons behind the delayed completion, and traders and the public expressed how it impacted their lives and businesses. The research found that administrative shortfalls, political fluctuations, and inappropriate technical planning are the reasons behind delays. Consequently, the public suffered from traffic congestion, time wastage, health issues, and effects on their social and economic life.
Downloads
References
AAA Engineering Consultants. (2018). Traffic management plan for four cities (Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat & Abbotabad). Urban Policy Unit, Planning & Development Department. https://urbanpolicyunit.gkp.pk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Traffic-Management-Plan-Peshawar.o.pdf
Ahmad, S. F., & Ahmad, S. I. (2019). Should we build mega transport projects in cities? The case of TransPeshawar Pakistan. International Journal of Experiential Learning & Case Studies, 4(1), 63–73.
Ahmed, S., Waheed, A., & Shah, S. A. A. (2021). Characteristics of informal transport in Pakistan: A case study of Peshawar city. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University, 56(6), Article e010. http://dx.doi.org/10.35741/issn.0258-2724.56.6.85
Ali, M. (2019, November 21). ADB to fix responsibility for delay in Peshawar Bus Project. Dawn News. https://www.dawn.com/news/1517907/adb-to-fix-responsibility-for-delay-in-peshawar-bus-project
Ali, S. F. (2022, September 24). NAB to probe corruption in Peshawar's BRT Project. Geo News. https://www.geo.tv/latest/442366-nab-to-probe-corruption-in-peshawars-brt-project
Ali, Z., Shah, D. A. A., & Hussain, A. (2012). Growing traffic in Peshawar: An analysis of causes and impacts. South Asian Studies, 27(2), 381–396.
Al‐Kharashi, A., & Skitmore, M. (2009). Causes of delays in Saudi Arabian public sector construction projects. Construction Management and Economics, 27(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190802541457
Asian Development Bank. (2017a). Peshawar sustainable bus rapid transit corridor project: Report and recommendation of the President. https://www.adb.org/projects/documents/pak-48289-002-rrp
Asian Development Bank. (2017b). Pakistan: Peshawar sustainable bus rapid transit corridor project. https://www.adb.org/projects/48289-002/main
Asian Development Bank. (2017c). Power generation efficiency improvement project: Environmental impact assessment. https://www.adb.org/projects/documents/uzb-49253-003-eia
Asian Development Bank. (2021). A newly completed bus rapid transit system is transforming lives of people in Peshawar. https://www.adb.org/results/newly-completed-bus-rapid-transit-system-transforming-lives-peshawar-pakistan
Audited Project Financial Statement. (2022). Audited project financial statements – Asian Development Bank. Peshawar Development Authority. https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/project-documents/48289/48289-002-apfs-en_0.pdf
Bahadur, I. (2019, December 26). BRT Peshawar: A tale of poor planning, execution and cost escalation. Pakistan Today. https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/12/26/peshawars-brt-faces-rs4-67bn-deficit-in-past-two-years/
Buneri, A. (2021, December 26). Peshawar's BRT faces Rs 4.67 bn deficit in past two years. Pakistan Today. https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/12/26/peshawars-brt-faces-rs4-67bn-deficit-in-past-two-years/
CDIA. (2022). Peshawar urban transport. https://cdia.asia/project/peshawar-urban-transport/
Chan, D. W., & Kumaraswamy, M. M. (1997). A comparative study of causes of time overruns in Hong Kong construction projects. International Journal of Project Management, 15(1), 55–63.
Economic Affairs Division. (2019). Ministry of economic affairs, economic affairs division. Government of Pakistan. http://ead.gov.pk/NewsDetail/NWRhOTE1NzktOWYzMS00NzA4LTk1YTgtNjZkMDNiZjk5OTli
Faiz, A. (2022). We are on the same page: The curious case of Imran Khan's populism in Pakistan. In A. Dieckhoff, C. Jaffrelot, & E. Massicard (Eds.), Contemporary populists in power (55–74). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Faridi, A. S., & El‐Sayegh, S. M. (2006). Significant factors causing delay in the UAE construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 24(11), 1167–1176. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600827033
Gishkori, Z. (2020, September 21). Auditors expose serious faults in Peshawar BRT bus fleet. The News International. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/717986-auditors-expose-serious-faults-in-peshawar-brt-bus-fleet
Gongadze, S., Maassen, A., & Serohina, L. (2022, August 16). 5 cities show how to thrive in turbulent times. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/insights/5-cities-show-how-thrive-turbulent-times
Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (2022). Khyber Pakhtunkhwa comprehensive development strategy 2010–2017. https://pndkp.gov.pk/download/comprehensive-development-strategy-2010-2017/
Government of Pakistan. (2014). Pakistan 2025: One nation: One vision. https://policy.asiapacificenergy.org/node/2910
Gul, R. (2021, February 9). A gift for the Women of Peshawar. The News International. https://www.thenews.com.pk/magazine/you/785571-a-gift-for-the-women-of-peshawar
Haider, F., Rehman, Z. U., Khan, A. H., Ilyas, M., & Khan, I. (2021). Performance evaluation of BRT standard in decision support system for integrated transportation policy. Sustainability, 13(4), Article e1957. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041957
Han, S. H., Yun, S., Kim, H., Kwak, Y. H., Park, H. K., & Lee, S. H. (2009). Analyzing schedule delay of mega project: Lessons learned from Korea train express. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 56(2), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2009.2016042
Idrees, S., & Shafiq, M. T. (2021). Factors for time and cost overrun in public projects. Journal of Engineering, Project & Production Management, 11(3), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.2478/jeppm-2021-0023
Iftikhar, R., & Lions, C. (2022). Interorganizational knowledge sharing barriers and enablers: the case of Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 15(5), 769–792. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-11-2021-0313
Jacobs, G. D., Fouracre, P. R. & Maunder, D. A. C. (1986, October 2). A review of public transport operations in third world cities [Paper presentation]. Proceedings of a Conference Organized by the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great Britain, London.
Kahangirwe, P., & Vanclay, F. (2024). Social impacts arising from road infrastructure projects in Sub-Saharan Africa: Better management of social issues is needed in road construction, upgrading and rehabilitation. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 42(4), 309–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2024.2385877
Khan, I. (2019, April 3). Damning report of public money waste on Peshawar BRT. Dawn News. https://www.dawn.com/news/1473563
Khan, S. M., Anwar, A., & Zulfiqar, H. (2021). Analysis of urban transport in Peshawar for user-friendliness. Global Regional Review, 6, 258–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/grr.2021(VI-I).28
Khattak, S. (2018, March 14). Design changes to delay Peshawar BRT project. The Express Tribune. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1659178/many-cooks-design-changes-delay-project
Khattak, S. (2019, April 5) Peshawar BRT: How not to complete a project. The Friday Times. https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2019/04/05/peshawar-brt-how-not-to-complete-a-project/
Kim, A. A., Sadatsafavi, H., Anderson, S. D., & Bishop, P. (2017). Preparing for the future of transportation construction: Strategies for state transportation agencies. Journal of Management in Engineering, 33(3), Article e04016045. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000494
Lead Pakistan. (2020, September 17). BRT’s launch fails to address traffic issue in Peshawar. https://leadpakistan.com.pk/news/brts-launch-fails-to-address-traffic-issue-in-peshawar/
Malik, A.A. (2022, August 23). Peshawar BRT project: Consultancy charges surge from RS816M to Rs. 2.362 bn. The News International. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/984726-peshawar-brt-project-consultancy-charges-surge-from-rs816m-to-rs2-362bn
Multi-billion, long-delayed bus rapid transit (BRT) project in Peshawar. (2019, January 31). Daily Times. https://dailytimes.com.pk/372774/multi-billion-long-delayed-bus-rapid-transit-brt-project-in-peshawar/
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. (2017). Table - 1 area, population by sex, sex ratio - census in Pakistan, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Government of Pakistan. https://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/population/2017/tables/kpk/Table01p.pdf
Peshawar Metro Bus Project costlier than Lahore, Pindi’s (2017, March 17). Dawn News. https://www.dawn.com/news/1321463
Project Administration Manual. (2017). Peshawar sustainable bus rapid transit corridor project: Project administration manual. Asian Development Bank. https://www.adb.org/projects/documents/pak-48289-002-pam
Report reveals irregularities worth billions of Rupees in Peshawar BRT project. (2022, August 18). Geo News. https://www.geo.tv/latest/434501-report-reveals-irregularities-worth-billions-of-rupees-in-peshawar-brt-project
Safi, J. (2022, October 22). Peshawar's Bus Rapid Transport project causes devastation. The Friday Times. https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2022/10/22/peshawars-bus-rapid-transport-project-causes-devastation/
Shah, S. Q. (2019, October 24). BRT project getting on people's nerves in Peshawar. Dawn News. https://www.dawn.com/news/1512588
Sharma, M., Trivedi, A. S., & Sharma, A. (2019). Analysis of Delays in Building Construction Projects. International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology, 7, 621–629.
Singh, D., & Tiong, R. L. (2006). Contractor selection criteria: investigation of opinions of Singapore construction practitioners. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 132(9), 998–1008. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2006)132:9(998)
Urban Policy Unit. (2014). Urban transport pre-feasibility study Peshawar, Pakistan, Urban Policy Unit, planning and development department. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. https://urbanpolicyunit.gkp.pk/wp-
Yousafzai, W. (2019, April 1). Peshawar bus rapid transit: Blessing or curse? The Express Tribune. https://tribune.com.pk/story/1941399/peshawar-bus-rapid-transit-blessing-curse .
Copyright (c) 2025 Shahad Ahmad Khan, Humaira Tabassum
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JAABE follows an open-access publishing policy and full text of all published articles is available free, immediately upon publication of an issue. The journal’s contents are published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license. Thus, the work submitted to the journal implies that it is original, unpublished work of the authors (neither published previously nor accepted/under consideration for publication elsewhere). On acceptance of a manuscript for publication, a corresponding author on the behalf of all co-authors of the manuscript will sign and submit a completed Copyright and Author Consent Form.
Copyright (c) The Authors
