Moving along: OLMT to get ramps for the differently-abled

Officials want to give all equal opportunities to benefit from project

LAHORE: Punjab government has decided to build ramps on all footpaths along the route of the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) in a bid to give disabled persons in the city an equal opportunity to get benefits from the mega project.

OLMT Steering Committee Chairman Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan, during a meeting on Wednesday, directed Lahore Development Authority (LDA), civil contractors and concerned departments to make the metro train project suitable for persons with special needs.

The OLMT official said, “right now, the construction of this multibillion dollar project is under way and city developers are in the process of remodelling roads along the metro train route. It will be a good idea if ramps are built with footpaths for citizens with special needs”.

“It will have no additional financial burden on the public kitty and a major portion of the city will become disabled-friendly,” he explained while giving a brief on the city’s upcoming road and infrastructure projects. According to the OLMT official, these would transform Lahore into the first disabled-friendly city of the country.

The participants of the meeting learnt that pre-forms had been imported for pre-casting concrete structures for package-II of the project (from Chaburji to Ali Town).

It was disclosed in the meeting that overall 61% of the ground civil works had already been completed, including 75% works done on package-I (from Dera Gujjran to Chaburji), 45.25% on package-II, 63.1% on package-III (depot) and 59.5% on package-IV (stabling yard).

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2017.