The Green Line BRT was inaugurated in February 2013.

It has 27
stations along a 27km corridor that stretches from Shahdara to
Gajjumata. The capital cost of the project was between Rs29 and
Rs34 billion, The stations provide access for the elderly and persons
with disabilities; utilise platform doors, GPS-based arrival timings,
automatic fare collection and RFID cards to run a smooth system. In
the first year of operation, the total ridership was 43 million. Peak
daily ridership was 178,850 and the average daily ridership through
the first half of 2014 was at 149,228 with a monthly average peak of
159,222. The system has an operational budget of Rs2.56 billion. Of
that amount, Rs953 million is recovered by the Punjab Metrobus
Authority (PMA) from the fares it collects. It requires Rs1.65 billion
support from the government, and this can be termed a subsidy.
Only 19.5 per cent households in Lahore have access to cars. A
further 44.8 per cent have access to a motorcycle. 40 per cent of
trips made in Lahore are exclusively pedestrian. Mobility is
extremely low compared to other large developing Asian cities,
especially for females who make one-fourth the same amount of
trips as men (JICA study). Female sections in public transit, just as
the existing Green Line has, will free women in the most literal
sense of the word.
Some people compared costs of widely different projects and missed some points entirely. The
capital cost for the line in Lahore was on the higher end because one-third of the track is elevated
a necessity. It was impossible to go through Ichra and other dense, old parts of town at ground
level and not eliminate necessary vehicular lanes.
Similarly, the Rawalpindi-Islamabad BRT has a high capital cost because of the extended
overhead section and due to future-proofing it for a shift to light-rail use.

The largest part of the expense is based on a Rs360/bus/km

agreement that the Government of Punjab signed with an operator
after a tendering process. The operating company is responsible for
the maintenance, the employees and the contract requires high
standards for operation to keep the system running well.

Comparison of BRTs with Other Modes of transport like cars

and own vehicles:
Across the globe, cars and highways are subsidised far more than transit projects. The public
does not usually recognise these subsidies and rather reacts with anger at subsidies provided to
mass transit. Nominal tolls on highways and motorways, or annual car registration taxes dont
cover costs, but give the driver a false sense of doing so. It is not convenient to ask every car
driver to pay a toll for the exact capital and O&M cost for their drive everyday. Yet, we expect
transit riders to pay the entire operational expense of their commute at the gate.
Punjab collected just over Rs9 billion as Motor Vehicle Tax last year and another Rs1.3 billion in
highway tolls, but had to spend over Rs33 billion in maintenance and construction of roads in the
province. There is additional federal highways and motorways spending in the region and
significant spending by local authorities (LDA, RDA, FDA, other Municipal Corporations and
TMAs) to keep the roads maintained. Even provincial spending alone would suggest a
comparable fare-box recovery of 31 per cent, and a real figure would be around 10 per cent or
so.

The existing BRT line in Lahore is getting subsidies that are perfectly
in line with global averages. Its reliance on the public kitty can be
reduced by utilising advertising potential and raising the ridership
numbers even more. But it is critical and perfectly normal for
publicly run mass transit systems to expect a significant support in
recovering operational cost.
Govt also giving subsidies on Energy ( Electricity ). Circular debt.
Today, the government continues to provide subsidy to the amount of Rs2.5 million per medical
student, only to be helping add value to the marketability of girls as wives in some cases
(patriarchal culture and society being responsible).
Subsidies for the working class should not even be controversial, especially when its equal to
660 female medical students not joining the workforce after studying on the public kitty (there
are over 18,000 medical college students in Punjab, 12,000 of them females, with the vast
majority in public colleges).

With over 350,000 cars and 850,000 motorcycles on the roads of

Lahore, congestion, pollution and safety are key issues, the stated
purpose of the Metrobus project is to increase the share of public
transport in Lahore, and accordingly provide safe, reliable transport.

Based on surveys approximately. 200,000 vehicles/day travel from

Pindi to Islamabad or 550,000 (persons) trips take place daily
between the two cities,