March 2023

Karachi is one of the world's largest and fastest growing cities. With a metro population of 16,000,000, Karachi is one of the world's ten largest cities (though its exact placement on the list varies depending on whether you use the official census population of 16,000,000 or the unofficial population of 20,000,000). It is also among the world's fastest growing cities, having almost doubled in population from 2000.

On top of this rapid growth, Karachi is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. Once called "the City of Lights" for its vibrant nightlife throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Karachi quickly fell into ethnic, sectarian, and political conflict throughout the 1980s, aided by the arrival of massive amounts of weaponry as part of the Soviet-Afghan War. By 2014, Karachi was the 6th most dangerous city in the world in terms of crime, leading to a massive--and controversial--police crackdown by the Pakistan Rangers targeting criminal gangs, Islamist militants, and the controversial Muttahida Qaumi Movement political party alike. Though controversial, this program dramatically lowered crime rates in Karachi, bringing it from the 6th most dangerous city in the world in 2014 to the 115th most dangerous in 2021--making it safer than other regional hubs like Dhaka (43rd), Delhi (82nd), and Bangalore (108th), and about as safe as Miami, Florida and Paris, France.

As Pakistan's largest city, Karachi is also the subject of a great deal of attention by the government, who is presently seeking to resolve some of the city's longstanding shortcomings in infrastructure and urban planning in order to boost economic development in the country's wealthiest city. Enter Karachi Transportation Improvement Plan 2030.

KTIP 2030 has existed in some capacity or another since 2009/2010, when the government of Pakistan began to design new transportation solutions for metro Karachi with the assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agency. While political instability kept KTIP 2030 projects from breaking ground for most of the 2010s, the Khan administration has made them a top priority since it was elected in 2018. Below are some of the projects in KTIP 2030, and the projected timelines for their completion.

Karachi Circular Railway -> Karachi Metro

As part of Karachi Transportation Improvement Plan 2030, the government of Karachi, with support from the federal government and the government of Sindh, has been focusing on renovating and reopening the former Karachi Circular Railway, a mostly at-grade regional public transit system that previously serviced downtown Karachi, but was forced to close in 1999 due to mismanagement and falling ridership. After twenty years of political disputes, the railway was finally brought back for limited service in 2020, while work was being done to further renovate the railway into the backbone of Karachi's first mass rapid transit network.

After three years of work, Phase One of this project, which involved the renovation of all existing track, including the installation of grade-separated track across ~25.5km of the ~43km of existing track and the electrification of the full route, as well as a spur expansion to Jinnah International Airport, has finally been completed. This renovated service alone has been enough to bring daily ridership up to 500,000, which, while small in a city of 16 million, is enough to dramatically reduce private vehicle traffic throughout the city, and begin reversing Karachi's decades-long trend towards private vehicle usage. Seeing the success of this project, the governments of Pakistan, Sindh, and Karachi are looking to enact the next Phases of the Railway Master Plan, converting the Circular Railway into the city's first real metro system.

The next phase of the project (in red) will focus on improving north-south connectivity in Karachi's transit network. In addition to bringing the transit network to Karachi's dense urban core, including the city's major tourist destinations line Mazar-e-Quaid, Phase Two will provide a north-south bypass to the Karachi Circular, meaning that people in north Karachi will be able to ride the train straight through to south Karachi without first having to pass through east or west Karachi, cutting travel times significantly and thereby increasing ridership. Phase Two will also include spurs to some of Pakistan's outlying neighborhoods, including Orangi Town, Surjani Town, Metroville Colony, and Korangi. Most of the track will be grade-separated--especially in downtown Karachi, where traffic is at its worst. These routes should be significantly faster than private vehicles (as they avoid Karachi's unbelievable traffic), and thus, more attractive for most residents. Phase Two, consisting of ~52km of new track, will cost about 3.2b USD (with costs being so high due to the construction of ~22km of subway lines through downtown Karachi, where the surface-level right-of-way is too small for elevated track). All track will be fully electrified. In addition to the construction of new track, Phase II will also open regular commuter service out to Landhi and Port Qasim, two rapidly growthing residential/industrial districts in southeastern Karachi, along existing rail lines. Construction is forecasted to finish in 2027.

After Phase Two is finished, Karachi will move on to Phase Three (in green), which will extend rapid transit connectivity to Karachi's southernmost neighborhoods, including Karachi Port, Kemari, DHA Karachi, Qayyumabad, Korangi, and Landhi. This project will be significantly shorter than Phase Two, coming in at about 27km of new track. It will also be significantly cheaper, as it will all be built on elevated track rather than subterranean track, with the whole route costing about 800m USD. Construction will be finished in 2029. An additional spur route south into Phase 8 of the Defence Housing Authority, with the eventual goal of connecting to potential new neighborhoods on Bundle and Buddo Islands in the Indus Delta, has been considered, but will not be pursued at this time.

Karachi Breeze Bus Rapid Transit Network

Busses are extremely popular in Karachi. In 2008, public busses accounted for over half of passenger occupancy in Karachi. However, years of underfunding and overcrowding have reduced this share: as of 2018, Karachi’s busses only account for 34 percent of passenger occupancy. In a rapidly growing city like Karachi, this is nothing short of a catastrophe. Karachi’s narrow streets are already clogged with private vehicles, costing Karachi’s economy billions of dollars every year in excess fuel usage and time lost commuting. By pushing Karachi’s commuters out of private vehicles and back into public busses, the government hopes to calm traffic throughout much of downtown Karachi, while providing a faster, cheaper alternative to private transit for Karachiites.

The key project of this government initiative is Karachi Breeze, a network of bus rapid transit lines criss-crossing metropolitain Karachi. Under construction since 2016, Karachi Breeze is divided into five “planned” lines (Green, Orange, Blue, Yellow, and Red--of which the Green, Orange, and Red Lines are completed), and two “optional” lines (Aqua and Purple). In total, the five planned lines are expected to serve over 1.3 million passengers daily, with the additional two additional lines serving a further 400,000 daily riders.

Bus rapid transit, or BRT, is an increasingly popular low-cost alternative to traditional tram or metro systems designed to provide greater capacity and reliability than conventional bus systems. BRTs provide a designated, often grade-separated right-of-way to busses, removing them from the larger road network (and the traffic present there) and prioritize busses over non-bus traffic at intersections, allowing them to offer faster travel times private vehicles (during peak hours, this can be several times faster than private vehicle usage along the same route) and conventional bus networks and shorter headways than conventional busses. BRT stations also provide a convenient hub for local bus routes, allowing riders easy transfers to and from local busses, and can be co-located with longer distance modes of transit like metro stations and train stations.

Green Line

The Green Line was the first of Karachi Breeze’s lines. Originating in downtown Karachi (where the lanes all converge on one shared BRT expressway), the route travels north into North Karachi TWP, New Karachi Town, and Surjani Town, some of the fastest-growing neighborhoods on Karachi’s outskirts. Since construction finished in 2021, ridership on the ~26km line has been upwards of 400,000 daily passengers. The Green Line is the first bus line in Pakistan to be powered by biomethane, an alternative fuel collected from cow dung. Processed locally in Karachi, this will help collect and eliminate cow dung that would otherwise be washed, untreated, into Karachi’s waterways and out into the Arabian Sea.

Red Line

The second Karachi Breeze line to finish construction, the Red Line provides east-west service through downtown Karachi, passing through the University of Karachi on its way to Malir Cantonment and Jinnah International Airport. Originally scheduled to start construction in 2020, construction was delayed until 2021 due to COVID-19. The ~29 kilometer route finished construction in 2023 at a total cost of 503m USD, which was financed primarily through a 235m USD loan from the Asian Development Bank and a 75.6m from the Sindh government, with the remainder covered by a variety of French Development Agency, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and Green Climate Fund grants. Since completion, daily ridership has sat around 350,000 riders.

Like the Green Line, the Red Line also uses biomethane-powered busses. Another green feature of the line is the installation of drains and cisterns along the course of the line, which will allow the collection of rainwater for horticultural use and for the recharge of Karachi’s stressed water tables.

Orange Line

The Orange Line is the shortest planned Karachi Breeze Line. Construction on the ~4km line, which branches off from the Green Line near North Nazimabad and travels north-northwest into Orangi Town. Daily ridership is around 50,000 passengers. The line was entirely funded by the Sindh Government. The Orange Line, due to its short length and the fact that it has its own depot located along the route, uses fully electric busses--the first route to do so in Pakistan.

Blue Line

The Blue Line is perhaps the line that has undergone the most changes since it was first proposed in the 2010s. Originally envisioned as a separate light rail/tram project, the Blue Line was eventually converted into a BRT project and folded into the larger Karachi Breeze project. This Karachi Breeze project was then folded into a private bus route proposed by Bahria Town Group, a privately owned real estate development company, to connect Bahria Town Karachi to the city proper. The result is a ~40km BRT route--the largest in the network--built as a public-private partnership between the government of Sindh and Bahria Town Group. Construction on this line is set to start this year (2023), with the line finally opening in 2025. When the line opens, daily ridership is expected to sit at about 500,000. This is the only route in Karachi Breeze slated to use diesel engines of any form, though they’re at least hybrids, using electricity to speed up to 40 km/h before switching over to diesel engines.

Yellow Line

The last of the planned lines, the Yellow Line provides improved connectivity to Karachi’s rapidly growing southern neighborhoods. Originating in the shared downtown expressway, the line travels south through Qayyumabad before crossing the Malir River into Korangi Creek and Landhi Town. In total, the line is ~22km long.

Construction on the Yellow Line began in 2022 after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with completion expected in 2025. Financing for the 428m USD line was primarily provided by the World Bank in the form of a 382m USD loan from the World Bank, with the remainder paid for by the government of Sindh. When opened, daily ridership is estimated to be around 200,000 passengers. Busses are scheduled to use biomethane.

Proposed Lines: Aqua Line

The Aqua Line is a proposed BRT line in the Karachi Breeze system, jutting out to the west of Karachi to service Maripur and the closer neighborhoods of Keamari Town (which is expected to be the second-fastest growing district of Karachi in the period between 2020 and 2030). The line is short, only about 12 kilometers in length, and divorced from the rest of the BRT network--rather than traveling downtown to the joint BRT expressway, it terminates when it meets the Karachi Circular Railway in western Karachi.

Originally proposed with the rest of the BRT network, the Aqua Line never secured funding, and thus, has sort of languished, half dead and half alive. With the northern loop of the Karachi Circular finally operational again, the Aqua Line has received renewed interest from the government, who is looking to secure funding from foreign partners. Given low land values along the route (the area is less built up than downtown Karachi, where the other routes run), the 12km line is expected to cost ~150m USD. The government of Sindh is looking to secure a combination of grants and loans to fund about 125m USD of this total. Sindh has reached out to Germany’s Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit for a grant of 75m USD, and to Japan International Cooperation Agency for an additional 50m USD in concessionary loans. The remainder will be financed by the government of Sindh. Like the other lines in the network, its busses will use biomethane.

Proposed Lines: Purple Line

The Purple Line exists in the same liminal space as the Aqua Line. A little under 10 kilometers, it starts just north of the Aqua Line, connecting to the Karachi Circular at the M-10 a stop or two further north. From there, it travels north-northwest along M-10, servicing Gulshan e Habib, Pakistan’s Police Training College, Swat Colony, Naval Colony, Yusuf Goth, and Musharraf Colony before terminating at the M-10/RCD Highway junction.

Like the Aqua Line, the Purple Line is projected to be significantly cheaper than the other routes in the network due to lower land values. In total, the project is forecast to cost 130m USD. To help finance this, the government of Sindh has asked the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency for a grant of 100m USD. Construction will take 18 months, meaning the project will finish in 2025. Like the other lines, this one will use biomethane.

New Proposal: Grey Line

Though not included in the original Karachi Breeze plans, the government of Karachi has planned an additional BRT line, called the Grey Line. This ~16km line extends service from the BRT expressway downtown to the Defence Housing Authority neighborhood in the south of Karachi, with an eye towards a future extension into the Bandal and Buddo Island projects, if they ever materialize.

This line is expected to cost 250m USD, and will take just under three years to complete, finishing in 2026. For financing assistance, the government of Sindh has reached out to the Blue Dot Network. This line, like the others, will use biomethane busses.