Daily Times

After spending more than Rs 30 billion on the Metro Bus System in Lahore, which has so far proved a white elephant, the Punjab government is embarking on another ambitious project called the Metro Rail Transit System. The Provincial Development Working Party has approved the project at a cost of more than Rs 162 billion. Undoubtedly, this is a huge investment in a single project that would cater for the transportation needs of Lahore alone. The idea to set up a light rail network in the city was first proposed in 1991, updated in 1993 through funding by the World Bank, but later shelved. In 2005, the project was revisited and a feasibility study was carried out through funding by the Asian Development Bank. However, after coming into power in 2008, the PML-N government shifted its priorities. In 2012, the original Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System was abandoned in favour of the Metro Bus System with an aim to gain political mileage for the 2013 general elections. A question arises about the government’s sincerity in abandoning the original plan that also had allocations for a Metro Bus system along its route. But the government put the cart before the horse — first it established the Metro Bus and now it is planning to build the Metro Rail that might conflict with the built Metro Bus route. This may turn out to be just a waste of public money. Besides, in the presence of so many other problems and crises, injecting billions of rupees into a single train project seems illogical. The government is bent upon spending most of the provincial budget on the uplift of Lahore. In the long run, this would engender feelings of resentment in the rest of Punjab. In the absence of so many other necessities of life, the government is busy with its ambitious plans of building costly infrastructure. The question also arises how the government will recover this huge cost. It is obvious that the government cannot run this project by charging more than its operating cost. If the operating cost is not retrieved, how heavy a subsidy will it have to pay? Already, the Punjab government is paying a subsidy of about Rs two billion on the Metro Bus Project annually.

The government needs to realise that people first need basic rights like education, health, electricity, justice and peace. There is no doubt that modern infrastructural development is necessary amid increasing traffic gridlock in Lahore, but the government should launch such development works in line with scientific urban planning rules and not on the basis of political considerations. *