Lahore Mass Transit project revived

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 entranceways and two exits.