Dear i live in Lahore, Rehmanpura behind WAPDA hospital.
I would like to highlight some facts because supporters of PMLN will support everything which PMLN do and vice-verse
Tehreek-e-Insaaf supporters will oppose it. Some facts you should know before further discussion.
* This project is only on 1 road which to the South connects Lahore to Kasur and then move right upto Ganda-Singh border
post with India. The road passes right between Lahore and from Lahore the distance of Kasur is almost 45KMs. To the North
it crosses Ravi bridge and then from Shahdara become GT Road further. The road is known as Ferozpur Road which is the
larger section, then Lyton Road, Babri Chowk after which MAO COllege and Lower Mall, Data Sahab, Minaar-e-Pakistan and
River Ravi bridge.
The road will start from Guju Mata which comes in between Lahore & Kasur (Its not Lahore nor Kasur)
Existing transport between Lahore and Kasur is mainly of 3 types.
A/C Coasters
Non A/C Mini buses
Toyota Hiace Vans
These 3 kinds of transport is run by private owners and government has nothing to do with them. They are available 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week. Anyone travelling from Shahdara to Kasur city have to wait at maximum 10 minutes to get a ride. Rents
are nominal. A/C Coaster one way rent is PKR.100/person. They take around 1.25 Hours one way to reach destination. The road
is mainly used by people who come to Kasur/Lahore daily for job/business etc. Ferozpur road was in very bad shape back in
2005-06. After Lahore General Hospital the road was single and extremely bumpy. Thanks to Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri (former
Foreign minister in Musharraf era & who hailed from Kasur) the road was construcred. Now the road was 2-way with 3 lanes
each, service lane etc. Other section of Ferozpur road from Lahore General Hospital right upto Mozang Chowk, was already 6
lane road+service lane. Lahore Gold market and Icchra shopping bazar also fall in this section. All road has a green belt 8
feet wide. Has trees and lamp posts all the way.
After Shabaz Shareef came to power in 2008, he spent millions of rupees in the green belt falling in the section from Lahore General Hospital right upto Kasur city. Thousands of trees were planted with imported grass in this section. A steel
baricade around 4 feet high with silver color was also erected on both sides of these newly planted trees right upto Kasur.
Similarly steel grills were installed in front of General Hospital all the way up. Imported date trees were also planted
here. After spending billions on this plantation he suddenly inaugurated this rapid bus system.
This project call for a new seperate road for this bus to run. So all newly constructed green belt was destroyed and billions spent on steel fence & trees went down the drain. No one asked, not courts nor media about this tax money loss. DOnt we have the right to ask that if such a project was in pipeline then why so much money was spent on planting trees in first place?
Other then this the whole new seperate road for rapid bus is fenced both sides with 10 feet high steel grill. This has literally divided Lahore into East-West. Now one have to make sometimes 2km distance just to go across the road. For pedestrians there is another problem. The only way to go across now is through iron bridges that will also be constructed 1KM apart. Now who will walk 1 km just to climb a bridge to go across? Also many elderly people can not climb through 20 feet high stairs. Again no answer to this problem. Similarly one person going to Kasur rides this bus but he will be dropped at Gaju Matta which is 20kms behind Kasur city. So why the hell will any person prefer this over conventianol transport which take him right inside Kasur city. There are many other points regarding this project. Really its a shame how tax payers money is being spent on such a useless project. Now what was the original plan mass transport system?
The rapid bus system is introduced by this government after cancelling the Lahore Mass Transit system. The detail of which
is as:
LAHORE - The Lahore Mass Transit project, planned in the 1990s but shelved last year, has been given a new lease of life
with an agreement signed between the Punjab government and China during Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif’s visit to Beijing,
Pakistan Today has learnt. The project will provide fast transportation facilities to 0.6 million passengers per day. The
Lahore Mass Transit Project, earlier called LRMTS, will cost $1.7 billion and around 85 percent capital would be provided
by China.
Last time, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was the co-financer in the LRMTS project with an estimated cost around $ 4.4
billion. According to the agreement with China, seven kilometre portion of urban rail spreading over a stretch of 27
kilometres in Lahore from Gajumata to Shahdara on Ferozepur Road will be laid underground. Lahore Transport Company
Chairman Khawaja Ahmed Hassaan, on behalf of the Punjab government, and Zhang Shiping, Vice President of NORINCO, an
international Chinese company, signed the agreement. Addressing the agreement signing ceremony, Shahbaz said that work on
the project would start this year and the Punjab government was ready to welcome Chinese engineers and skilled workers for
this purpose.
“The project will minimise congestion on public transport routes, provide a high-level of service, speed, frequency and
easy accessibility to reduce dependency on road vehicles, facilitate safe and environmentally-sustainable transport,” an
official of the transport department told Pakistan Today. Former LRMTS deputy director Tayyab Fareed said that planning for
the metro network had started in the 1990s when the priority corridor for a light rail transit system had been identified.
Internationally reputed consultants were commissioned by the government in 2005 to undertake a feasibility study of a rapid
mass transit system for Lahore. Spreading over 97 kilometres with 82 stations, a network of mass transit corridors
consisting of four lines was identified in December 2005 with Ferozepur Road as top priority corridor or ‘green line’.
Detailed feasibility of the green line had been finalised in August 2006 that had defined its main parameters.
Another official of the transport department said that according to the previous plan, Mega Metro Project consisted of a
Green Line and Orange Line that had to be completed in three to five years. The Full Metro Strategic Network included 4
lines (Green Line, Orange Line (Phase I), Purple Line and Blue Line Phase-II) and had 97 kilometres length with 82
stations. The Green Line had to extend from Shahdara to Hamza Town via Ravi Road, Lower Mall, Mall Road, Fatima Jinnah
Road, Qartaba Chowk and Ferozepur Road areas. The length of the Green Line was going to be 27 kilometres. Around 11.6
kilometres-long Green Line route had to be underground, while a 15.4 kilometres route had to be made an overhead.
There had been 12 underground and 10 overhead stations built on the Green Line route. The Orange Line was going to cost $2
billion. Its route had to extend from Pakistan Mint to Sabzazar via Shahnoor, Awan Town, Hinjarwal, Niaz Beg, Canal View,
Wahdat Road, Ali Town, Salahuddin Road, Bund Road, Islam Park, Dera Gujjran Depot, Mahmood Booti, Salamatpura, Samanabad,
Gulshan Ravi, Chauburji, Lake Road, Lakshmi Chowk, Railway Station, Sultanpura, UET, Baghbanpura and Shalimar Garden areas.
The length of Orange Line had to be 27 kilometres out of which 6.9 kilometres long tracks had been underground and a 20.2
kilometres-long overhead had to build upon which six underground and 20 overhead stations had to be established.
The central interchange station of Green and Orange lines had to be established besides linking these lines at Ring Road,
Railway Station, airport and Sports City. In Phase-II, two more tracks had to be laid, which were supposed to be called
Blue Line and Purple Line. The route length of blue line was going to be 24 kilometres. The ‘Blue Line’ had to start from
Chauburji and end at College Road, and from Chauburji the line had to pass through Mozang Chungi, Shadman Chowk, Jail Road,
Mian Boulevard Gulberg, Mian Boulevard Garden Town, Faisal Town and had to end at College Road. The route length of Purple
Line was going to be 19 kilometres. The Purple Line had to start from Bhaati Chowk and end at the Allama Iqbal
International Airport.
The line had to pass through Bhaati Chowk, Brandreth Road, Railway Station, Allama Iqbal Road, Dharampura, Ghazi Road and
end at the Allama Iqbal International Airport. Trains stations on the elevated route had to be designed like overhead
bridges while train stations on the underground route had two entrance ways and two exits.
Lahore Mass Transit project revived | Pakistan Today | Latest news | Breaking news | Pakistan News | World news | Business | Sport and Multimedia
Now this project was supposed to cover all Lahore while this Metro bus covers only one route. That project was studied in
depth while this project has been started without any planning. Thousands of shops, houses and shopping centers have been demolished to make way for this new road. This will only bring more traffic jams and chaos to already struggling Lahore.