Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) TransKarachi, a public sector company established and owned by the Government of Sindh to carry out the project implementation of the $504 million Karachi Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), with the UrbanTech Pakistan team at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan’s leading non-profit university based in Lahore.
Following the collaboration, TransKarachi and LUMS will take initiatives to become true advocates of gender equity in public transport by collaborating on technological interventions, trainings, lectures, seminars, other capacity building programs and awareness campaigns focused on smooth urban mobility and gender mainstreaming. The two parties will also work on research projects and papers by executing joint surveys, focus group discussions and interviews to address and prevent sexual harassment and gender-based violence and gauge the effectiveness of legal remedies and redressal mechanisms.
To mark the occasion, an MoU signing ceremony was held at LUMS on 22nd August, 2022 between the members of TransKarachi and Urraan; an initiative of the UrbanTech Pakistan project at LUMS, with a goal to gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by women while utilizing public transport & to explore potential solutions for them.
Present at the occasion from TransKarachi were, Wasif Ijlal, CEO and Barrister Maham Durrani, Gender Specialist while Dr. Suleman Shahid, Co-Principal Investigator of UrbanTech Pakistan & Assistant Professor, and Sana Riaz, Urban Policy Consultant represented LUMS.
Speaking at the occasion, Barrister Maham Durrani, Gender Specialist, TransKarachi said, “As the Gender Specialist at TransKarachi, I am very excited to partner with Urraan on this project and work with their team to reflect how Pakistan’s transport systems affect women and men differently. I am confident that the insights and data collected will play an instrumental role in helping us achieve the targets identified by the Gender Action Plan (GAP) by ADB to address gender concerns with respect to public transport, specifically in the areas of accessibility, safety, security, affordability, and convenience.”
“This association between TransKarachi, Urraan and UrbanTech Pakistan at LUMS will be essential in improving the experience of females on their journey via public transport in Pakistan. Furthermore, as discussed with their team, we are more than happy to collaborate on other BRT initiatives such as Transit Oriented Development Planning to improve first and last mile connectivity”, said Dr. Momin Uppal, Principal Investigator of the UrbanTech Pakistan project and Associate Professor.
The $504 million Karachi Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line project is sponsored by the Government of Sindh, with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and co-financiers, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the French Agency for Development (AFD), and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
