Metro train: Relocation funds approved for illegal occupants

Compensation to be provided to occupants of Geeta Bhawan Building

LAHORE: The government has decided to compensate illegal occupants of government buildings being acquired for the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project.

Orange Line Steering Committee Chairman Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan said that the government would pay relocation compensation to occupants of Geeta Bhawan Building and shopkeepers of Napier Chowk, Nicolson Road and Sukh Nehr.

Addressing a committee meeting on Saturday, he said that these people were not lawful owners of the properties. “They have no documents in support of their claims, but Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has directed us to pay them relocation compensation as a goodwill gesture. A summary for the approval of the compensation amount has been forwarded [to CM],” he said.



“The government will issue relocation compensation and business-loss support, once occupants vacate the properties and hand over their possession to the Lahore Development Authority,” he said.

Hassaan said it was for the first time in the country that a government had announced such a generous compensation package. “It includes relocation compensation, business-loss support and building costs,” he said. Hassaan directed the LDA and other government agencies to speed up the land acquisition process.

He said the government would seek cooperation of local government representatives and members of the provincial assembly to complete the land acquisition campaign at the earliest.

MNAs Mehr Ashtiaq Ahmad and Waheed Alam Khan; MPAs Muhammad Akhtar, Majid Zahoor, Mian Marghoob Ahmad and Said ul Malook Khokhar attended the meeting. District administration and LDA officials were also present.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2016.