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Cars and TransportationPakistan

Karachi is overhauling its public transport — at what cost?

Manaf Siddique in Karachi
April 7, 2026

Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, is introducing new bus routes in a bid to ease widespread congestion. However, delays in rolling out the plan are causing endless traffic jams along a key corridor, worsening conditions for long-suffering commuters.

https://p.dw.com/p/5Bmne

The construction of Karachi's Red Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Pakistan began in 2022, with the authorities running the route along University Road, a key corridor used by tens of thousands of commuters every day. 

The Red Line is part of the upcoming Karachi Breeze transit network, which aims to build more than 100 kilometers of dedicated bus lanes across the city of over 20 million people.

Once completed, the Red Line alone is expected to serve around 1.5 million passengers, with a projected daily ridership of 350,000.

Local media reported that the project was supposed to be completed in 30 months. But due to repeated delays, it is still unfinished as of April 2026. 

Fuad Ghaffar Soomro, CEO of TransKarachi, the implementation agency responsible for Karachi's Red Line BRT, told DW that the new projected timeline is December 2027.