‘Metro train to end politics of opponents’

Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah on Saturday said completion of the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project would blow away politics of people who were criticising the project.

Addressing a press conference here at 90 Shahrah-e-Quaid-i-Azam, he said in the past motorway was brought under criticism and those people who were opposing it were today in its favour. He said the project would be completed by the end of 2017 as it would be good if it was completed in the stipulated time. To a query, he said the government was focusing on all sectors equally adding that work continued on the provision of clean drinking water, Khadim e Punjab Rural Roads Programme, health reforms and the agriculture package had been announced to facilitate farmers and many others steps were being taken to improve all areas of life in the larger interest of people.

Khawaja Ahmed Hassaan said Lahore was the second most populated city of the country and about 6.8 million people travelled daily by using different means of transport. He added it was realised in 2006 that mass transit was required to overcome transport related problems of people. "Through international tender the lowest bid which emerged for the project was of 2.12 US billion dollar which was further reduced to 1.47 US billion dollar and we are thankful to the Chinese government for their support," he added.

Khawaja Ahmed Hassaan said that about 9500 Kanals of land was needed for the project and four camps were set up on the direction of the Punjab chief minister to facilitate people and make the process of payment easier.

He said the Orange Line Metro train was not affecting heritage points at all and the project would make it easy for people to access the points and the heritage points would be renovated at about Rs 100 million. About 300 000 people would daily benefit from the metro train and the figure would swell to 500 000, he said. 

He said China, accepting the credibility of the PML-N leadership, was assisting in the project, adding that the metro train project was a great gift to the people. The project should be completed so that modern means of transportation could be promoted, he added.