The Punjab government’s sinister move of renaming and asserting its claim over the Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System (LRMTS) will fall flat since people are aware it was planned and financed by the earlier Punjab government, said former Chief Minister (CM) Pervaiz Elahi briefing journalists on the LRMTS project on Tuesday.
Elahi said that, after inviting international tenders in 2004, his government had short-listed a Hong Kong-based company credited with several successful urban metro projects and French company Systra to complete the reference design of the LRMTS in 2007 which included engineering, planning and financial evaluation of the project.
Explaining the financial aspect of the LRMTS, Elahi said according to the 2006 price index, the cost for a 27 km green line extending from Ferozepur Road Lahore to Shahdra was put at $ 2.4 billion. He said the Asian Development Bank had consented to providing a $1.2 billion loan for the project while three other foreign companies were willing to invest $1 billion.
Elahi said the LRMTS had become a matter of revenge as the present Punjab government told the Asian Development Bank that the $ 1 billion loan was not required since the province’s investment climate was no longer congenial, he said.
Elahi said that the timely completion the LRMTS project would have generated $ 100 million per annum apart from creating of over 1 million new jobs and saving the public’s time and money.
Criticizing Shahbaz government’s recently signed agreement on the project with a Chinese company, Elahi alleged there was no project feasibility report and the financial details including the markup rate on a massive $ 1.87 billion loan had also not been made public. He said that Shahbaz government’s abject failure to manage Punjab left it with no choice but to revive PML-Q’s projects namely the IT Tower Lahore and LRMTS.
He also criticized PML-N’s claims of turning 8-Club road into an IT university, selling of bullet proof cars, Sasti Roti scheme, Green Tractor scheme and the performance of task forces set up by the current Punjab CM.
