Lahore: The Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit (SMU) on transport department during a meeting held on Monday set March 2020 as the new deadline for the completion and operationalisation of the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project, a news source reported.
Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht presided over the meeting. Provincial Transport Minister Jahanzab Khan Kitchi, Adviser to the Chief Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah, SMU head Fazel Asif, and the transport secretary were all present at the occasion.
The secretary transport briefed the attendees that the OLMT would be operational in the current fiscal year by March 2020. Previously, the Supreme Court had fixed the deadline of May 2019 for the project’s completion.
In response, the Punjab finance minister gave instructions with regard to the completion of the project and chalked-out fare for individual rides. He also said that metro buses fares would be revised after the cabinet’s approval to better accommodate the users’ affordability.
He said that a stable model would be evolved for the collection of fares. He further instructed the department to provide the details of all route permits, number/condition/capacity of the buses in accordance with the road infrastructure to the SMU. He hinted to get the private transport companies on board in upgradation of the rules and regulations of the fare collection.
The meeting discussed the bus routes to be expanded to the special economic zones and maintenance work of the general bus stand to be handled through a public-private partnership model.
The secretary transport informed the meeting that 16.47 million vehicles were registered in Punjab, while 207,789 route permits were issued in the 2017-18 that generated PKR 47,506 million in revenue.
The projects being developed in Punjab include the Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi metro buses, Lahore and Multan feeder buses, the OLMT project, vehicle inspections and certification of axel load management, and Modern Bus Terminal Project, he added.
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