Tous Boulevard BRT in Mashhad: A Vital Project Still Stalled!

Deputy chair of the Budget and Planning Commission of the Mashhad City Council said that despite a dedicated budget line in the municipality's annual budget over the past three years, the Tous Boulevard BRT line has still not been implemented, due to pending upstream approvals and the preparation of technical annexes. He said the project would improve service quality along Tous Boulevard in several respects.

The Vice-Chairman of the Program and Budget Commission of the Islamic Council of the Holy City of Mashhad said: The implementation of the Tos Boulevard BART line has not yet been implemented, despite the provision of a special line in the annual budget of the municipality for the past three years, the obtaining of upper approvals and the preparation of specialized annexes; A project that increases the quality of services in Tos Boulevard from various aspects.

According to Ambassador Arjan of Khorasan, Majid Tahorian Askari, referring to the importance of developing public transportation infrastructure in Tos Boulevard, said: One of the important construction projects of Mashhad city from the perspective of the city's Islamic Council and especially the Tos Development and Improvement Commission is the creation of a BART line on Tos Boulevard. A project that, considering the traffic needs and frequent requests of citizens, the necessity of its implementation is felt more than ever.

He said: During the past three years, the Islamic Council of the holy city of Mashhad has set aside a special line for this project in the annual budgets of the municipality, and the necessary upstream approvals, including the approvals of the peer council of the province and the country, have also been obtained. Also, this project has received the approval of the Article 7 Municipal Commission and its social, environmental and transportation annexes have been prepared.

The Vice Chairman of the Program and Budget Commission of the Holy Islamic Council of Mashhad continued: The municipality has also carried out the value engineering process for this project in order to examine the various dimensions and aspects of the plan and prepare the ground for its implementation by taking into account specialized considerations. Therefore, according to the measures and studies carried out, it is expected that the implementation process of the project will be determined because the delay in its implementation will impose additional costs on the city and municipality.

Emphasizing the effects of implementing the Tos Boulevard BART line on the traffic situation of citizens, Tahorian Askari stated: Estimates show that the implementation of this line can reduce the travel time in the area of Tos Boulevard by 50% and bring the time interval for buses to reach the station to three to five minutes. An issue that will play an important role in increasing the attractiveness of public transportation and facilitating the movement of more than 700,000 people living in this area and the general public.

Pointing to the importance of this project for emergency services, he said: One of the most important effects of BART line implementation is to facilitate and speed up the traffic of service devices such as emergency and fire departments. Collections that directly deal with the lives and property of citizens and sometimes even a few seconds can be decisive in their missions; Creating a suitable infrastructure for the faster passage of rescue forces can play an effective role in reducing the time to reach the scene of the accident and increasing the effectiveness of their operations.

The head of the Tos Development and Improvement Commission of the Islamic Council of the Holy City of Mashhad said, referring to the repeated requests of the people for the implementation of this project, due to the provision of credits in the annual budgets, obtaining the required approvals, carrying out specialized studies and anticipated works to improve public transportation and emergency services, speeding up the implementation of the Tos BART line should be given serious attention so that the citizens of this area can benefit from its benefits as soon as possible.