LDA report says work on package 1 is ahead of schedule. PHOTO: EXPRESS
LAHORE: The first consignment of U-Tub formwork needed for the construction of Orange Line Metro Train’s track has been procured from China, The Express Tribune learnt on Sunday.
The shipment will reach Karachi next month, said Habib Construction Services (HCS) Chief Executive Officer Shahid Saleem.
Saleem, whose company has the contract for the construction of Metro Train’s Package 1 (Dera Gujjaran to Chauburji), said U-Tub formwork would be used in laying the track.
He said work on a 9.3 kilometre stretch from Dera Gujjaran to Cooperative Store was at an advanced stage. He said work was also underway for the construction of 350 pillars between Dera Gujjaran and Cooperative Store.
Saleem said delay in acquisition of land for train stations, including an underground station at Lakshmi Chowk, was delaying progress on the rest of the project as well. Work on the remaining part of Package 1 would be started once there was some headway in court cases over land acquisition.
Meanwhile, the Lahore Development Authority’s (LDA) project management report stated that work on Package 1 was ahead of schedule but that on Package 2 (Chauburji to Ali Town) was behind schedule. The report said 12 percent of the scheduled time for the project had elapsed. The deadline for completion of civil works is August 2016.
The report said design of bridges to be constructed for the track at points where it would cross railway lines had been submitted to Pakistan Railways (PR). It said work on these bridges would be started once a no-objection-certificate (NOC) was received from the PR.
The report said the LDA and the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) were still working to solve drainage issues at Lakshmi Chowk and near the General Post Office – where the train would be underground.
It said preparation of documents was underway for inviting bids for construction of a depot along the track.
The report mentions three issues as critical to timely completion of the project. These are land acquisition, litigation over land acquisition disputes and shifting of utilities.
The 27km Orange Line Metro Train will be the country’s first intra-city mass transit train. The cost estimate for the project is $1.6 billion. A consortium of Chinese firms has extended a loan for the purpose.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2015.
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