Punjab

Orange Line: Restoration of roads gets underway

‘Asphalt coating from Dera Gujjaran to Coop Store to be completed before monsoon’

Photo Abid Nawaz/Imran Adnan May 21, 2016

OLMT Package I contractor says it will start laying asphalt layer on roads along a nine-kilometre stretch of the track from Tuesday. PHOTO: ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS

LAHORE: The Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) Package I contractor has started restoration of roads from Dera Gujjaran near the Lahore Ring Road to Shalimar Gardens after completion of civil works and erection of pillars along this segment of the train track.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Habib Construction Service (HCS) CEO Shahid Saleem said that civil works had been completed along the nine kilometre segment of the track except for the points where construction had been suspended under court directives.

He said the company had removed steel fences from the roads and laid down a base layer. From Tuesday, it would start laying the asphalt layer, he added.

Saleem said they would try to finish the first asphalt coating from Dera Gujjaran to Cooperative Store before the start of the monsoon season.

He said that in the second phase restoration work would be carried out along the 1.5 kilometre section from Bohar Wala Chowk to Hall Road would be restored.

He said he hoped road restoration would help reduce problems faced by commuters.

“We have learnt our lessons during construction of the Rawalpindi Metro Bus project. The delay in restoration of Murree Road and its adjacent areas had caused great inconvenience to commuters,” he said.

Regarding the underground section of the track, Saleem said there were court directives prohibiting work along most of the points where the track was proposed to go underground. He said that the company had started digging trenches in areas where there was no bar on construction for the underground track. He said work was underway to lay down the top slab from the location for the OLMT station in Anarkali to a nearby point on the Metro Bus track (Barrel No3). Digging work had been started from Hall Road to The Mall (Barrel No2), he added. He said no construction activity had been carried out near GPO Chowk (Barrel No1) in view of the court directives.

Saleem said nearly 38 percent of the construction work for package I had been completed (at a cost of Rs8 billion). The total estimated cost for the Package I is Rs21 billion.

The 27km OLMT project is estimated to cost around $1.65 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2016.