If you ride the Rawalpindi–Islamabad metro bus, you have probably wondered who actually runs it. The answer is the Punjab Mass Transit Authority, usually shortened to PMA. It is the Punjab government’s official body for planning, building and operating mass transit systems, and its decisions decide how your daily commute works. This guide covers exactly what the authority does, the official helpline numbers for every city, and how to reach them with a complaint or question.
What the Punjab Mass Transit Authority Actually Does
The Punjab Mass Transit Authority is a statutory body set up by the Government of Punjab in 2012 under the Punjab Masstransit Authority Act, and it is headquartered at the Arfa Software Technology Park on Ferozepur Road in Lahore. Its job is to plan, construct, operate and maintain mass transit systems across Punjab’s major cities — which today means the Orange Line Metro Train and Metrobus in Lahore, the Multan Metrobus, and the Pakistan Metrobus System between Rawalpindi and Islamabad. It also oversees feeder bus routes that connect neighbourhoods to the main corridors.
The Islamabad connection matters most to this site’s readers. The Pakistan Metrobus System — the Red Line corridor from Saddar in Rawalpindi to the Secretariat in Islamabad — is a PMA operation, inaugurated in June 2015 with 24 stations and a fleet of air-conditioned articulated buses. One important distinction to save you confusion: the Red Line is the PMA’s line. Islamabad’s Blue, Green and Orange buses and the electric feeder buses fall under CDA’s own metro services, so for those lines you should look to CDA channels rather than the PMA helpline.
Official Helpline Numbers and When to Call Them
The PMA publishes its official helplines on its own website, pma.punjab.gov.pk, and they are the numbers a commuter in the twin cities should save. For the Rawalpindi Metrobus System — the Red Line you ride every day — the helpline is (051) 111-222-627. The same helpline pattern covers the other PMA cities: (042) 111-222-627 for Lahore and (061) 111-222-627 for Multan. One easy pattern to remember: the last digits are the same everywhere, and only the city code changes.
Call the helpline when something is actually affecting your journey. The line is meant for exactly the everyday commuter problems: a bus running far off schedule, a station closed or crowded without notice, a fare or ticketing issue, or a lost item on the bus or at a station. Keep your questions short and have your details ready — the station name, the time of day and the direction you were travelling — because that is how quickly staff can check what happened and help you.
Services, Complaints and Reaching the Office
Beyond the helpline, the PMA runs a dedicated complaint system that is worth knowing about. It operates a Complaint Management System app, available on the Play Store, built specifically for Punjab Mass Transit Authority passengers to lodge and track complaints about metro bus services. If your issue is not urgent but you want it on record — a recurring schedule problem, cleanliness at a station, staff behaviour — the app is the cleanest way to file it and follow what happens next.
For anything formal, the head office sits on the 5th floor of the Arfa Software Technology Park at 346-B Ferozepur Road, Lahore, and the authority’s full service details are on its official website at pma.punjab.gov.pk. Remember that the PMA is a Punjab government authority, so its complaint channels carry the weight of an official government record — your grievance does not disappear into a suggestion box.
One final note before you save these numbers: the PMA helpline is for the Red Line metro in Rawalpindi–Islamabad and the Lahore and Multan systems, not for Islamabad’s CDA-run bus lines or the Punjab Transport Department’s general transport matters. Use the right channel for the right line, and you will get answers much faster. Save (051) 111-222-627 in your phone today — it is the number that actually belongs to the authority running your metro.