Metro Bus Introduction
In the second largest city of Pakistan, Lahore L ahore Metro Bus service is on run now. It has provided a marvelous opportunity to the residents of Lahore and it’s superb it’s superb to enjoy a rapid and world class transport facility in a very economic way. On the other hand, it has created a number of new problems and suspicions among the residents. Over the past 15 years the rapid growth in population and vehicle ownership has steadily worsened traffic congestion. Vehicle registration has increased from 56 to over 116 per 1,000 inhabitants. Cars have increased over the same period from 13 to 35 per 1,000 inhabitants and are now increasing at the rate of 10 to 15% per annum. With a population predicted to rise to over 15 Million by 2015 and the economic growth running running at the rate of 5% p.a this situation will only get worse, in the absence of any proposed transport infrastructure improvements. LRMTS was originally conceived in the year 1991 when Mian Nawaz Sharif was the prime minister of the country. A Japanese company, named named JICA, had prepared the feasibility of a light rail transit system with a proposal for a 13-kilometre long track. In ‘93, the project came under the purview of the World Bank. At that time, its estimated cost was US $400 $40 0 million (approx.). In ‘95, Japan proposed to finance the original scheme with grants and loans of about US $495 million. But the project n ever took off.
In order to cope with the ever increasing traffic congestion on the Lahore road network, JICA carried again a comprehensive study on the transportation system in Lahore in 2011. The study formulated a transportation transportation plan for the city for next 20 years. The master plan identified following two corridors requiring a Mass transit system: Ferozepur Road Corridor 28.7 Km Multan Road Corridor 12.4 Km The public transport demand on the above said corridors have increased so significantly that a normal bus system would not be able to cater the public transport needs on the said corridors. The only solution to this would be development of a “Rapid a “Rapid Transit System” System” .So, the Government of Punjab appointed “Ulasim” a Turkish based company of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, for preparing the preliminary design of Metrobus System (MBS). Based on the ridership data of the LRMTS Feasibility Study, the BRT system on Corridor 1 is expected to carry 9,000 peak period passengers per hour per direction (pphpd) by the year by 2011, 20,000 pphpd by the year 2021, and 24,000 pphpd by 2025. A BRT system can be built in Corridor I with with the nearly the same capacity as the proposed metro system, with an average operating speed of 26 km/h, starting at 9,000 pphpd and increasing to 24,000 pphpd over time.
Merits of Project
The 27-km long journey across the Gaju Mata and Shaadra has been reduced to just 55 minutes.Previously, people were bound to use alternate buses for the same route and it took hours to reach their destinations. It has a very low flat fare of Rs. 20 per journey (anywhere on the Metrobus corridor). Special seats are reserved to women and the disabled. The ill and the old can easily ride it using escalators. It is a world class facility introduced for the first time in Pakistan. This project has put Pakistan in the list of about 36 countries that use the modernized transport facility structure of Bus Rapid Transit system including Brazil, India and Turkey. Foolproof security arrangements have also been made on the route. The project was completed in record time of only 11 months. “The pace of project was quite impressive for the deputy prime minister of Turkey who expressed his views on the inauguration day” Transparency International Pakistan has evaluated the project and declared it as transparent one. Formerly ambulances were stuck in the traffic of the route, but now they are allowed to use the Metro track.
Suspicions/Demerits of the Project
Unlike the general perception.The funding of the project has been provided by the Government of Punjab. Turkish government has not given a single penny for the project except the promise of 100 used buses to be provided in future. The Punjab government has been playing around with rules to avoid the scrutiny of the BRTS project in the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), the highest forum for approval of d evelopment projects in the country which works under the federal government. “The project has never been brought to the ECNEC because the Punjab government had not executed it as a single project but divided it into a host of small projects not exceeding Rs 5 billion each as any project more than Rs 5 billion needs to be discussed and approved by the ECNEC,” says an official of the Ministry of Finance, adding that once a project is halted by ECNEC, it cannot be approved by the provinces. A major part of the land compensations acquired by the government authorities for the metro bus project are lying pending because of disagreements on the amount offered by the government. The government, through the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), has allocated Rs 1.82 billion as compensation to the ongoing metro bus project. Most of the land, which is barely a few feet from the front side of the private properties on the route, falls in the area between Muslim Town and Bhatti Gate, where the bus track will pass on the ground The government launched the pilot project of the BRTS in March-April this year. An Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) was conducted and public hearing called. The Punjab Environment Protection Agency (EPA) gave approval to the whole project though the EIA — a very weak one — had been done only for the stretch from Gajumatta to Kalma Chowk. “This was very much expected as the EPA is also a Punjab government entity.” He says the decision has been contested vehemently and the EIA challenged by the court by a lawyer named Akhtar Awan. The plea taken by the lawyer is that
there should be a public hearing whenever the plan is altered and the one done at the start is not valid for ever.
There are some points where the roads of the city cross the metro lane. At these junctions traffic jams are common. The only way to avoid these evils is to construct underpass or flyovers at these points. And the cost of these much needed constructions has not been included in the cost of the project. Huge Metro Busses use same Ravi Bridge and hence the overall traffic is slowed down including the Metro itself. There is a plan to construct another bridge for this purpose alone. And its cost would be another addition to the 32 billion, the initial cost of the project. This project is not feasible in the prevailing circumstances as more than 32 billion has been spent so far on the project of Metro Bus out of 62.9 Billion of total Infrastructure Development budget of Punjab (2012-2013).while only 16.5 billion is left for the health of the whole province. There could be a number of other better priorities for this huge amount including health and education and areas other than Lahore. Chaburji Hockey, Cricket, Football grounds, Chaburji Quarters ground, GC ground and Wahdat road ground were occupied by masons and machinery for the construction of Metro Bridge, but these places are still occupied even many days after the Inaguration of Metro Service and has not been yet restored. Where Metro Lane runs along the roads its fence divides the city into two. The residents have to suffer a lot just to cross the Metro Lane. It would cast its effect on the life styles and culture of the localities. (By: Ammar Saleem Butt Advocate)
