Lahore Transport Company (LTC) Chairman Khawja Ahmed Hassan announced at Chief Minister (CM)’s Secretariat on Monday that the Punjab government and a Chinese company, Noranko signed an agreement for Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System (LRMTS). Noranko will invest 1.7billion US Dollars for the execution of the plan. During the first phase, 27 km will be covered from Shahdra to Gajju Matta under the LRMTS whereas another Chinese company, Fotan will ply 200 new buses on the urban routes in which 111 vehicles will be provided by June.
Hassan also constituted a committee to be headed by LTC Vice-Chairman Mehr Ishtiaq to formulate recommendations for the elimination of the illegal transport and maintenance of the traffic discipline for the public service vehicles in the city, within 15 days. Hassan said that LTC would provide all possible assistance to the private transport companies in facilitating the public by improving urban transport. He said new bus terminals and depots would be set up in various parts of the city for implementing the transport action plan in an effective manner. He said the CM’s tour to China proved to be a major breakthrough in terms of investment in the transport sector and added that the CM had made clear to the China that Pakistanis were interested in ‘trade not aid’.
He said that there would be no compromise on the standard of new buses and it would be ensured that only the buses that would meet standards and specifications approved by the LTC Board of Directors operate on the urban routes. He said 250 old buses had been identified for refurbishment and requisite resources were being provided for these buses. He said that the third party evaluation had been conducted in order to ascertain the extent of maintenance of these buses under the refurbishment scheme.
LTC Vice Chairman Mehr Ishtiaq, LTC Board of Directors Mohsin Lateef, Javed Masood, Lahore Commissioner Nadeem Hassan Asif, Transport Secretary Transport M Yousuf, Lahore District Coordination Officer Ahad Cheema, Lahore City Traffic Officer Syed Ahmed Mubeen, LTC J.I.KIM Chief Executive, Senior transport planning specialist and Development Department Officer Muhammad Uzair Shah, Operations General Manager (GM) Asad Gillani, Enforcement GM Senior Superintendent Police Kamran Khan, Finance GM Adnan Mudasser, Media Advisor Amjad Hussain and Legal Advisor Saeed Rayees-u-din were also present at the occasion.
