Punjab

Conservation: Govt gets notice over Kalma Chowk flyover

LHC issues notice to Punjab govt on appeal challenging order dismissing petition against construction of flyover.

March 25, 2011

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the Punjab government for April 6 on an intra court appeal challenging an order dismissing a writ petition against the construction of flyover at Kalma Chowk.

Lahore Conservation Society and others had filed the appeal through Advocate Ahmad Rafay Alam. The petitioners had challenged the construction of Kalma Chowk flyover saying that the Lahore Development Authority had violated the Pakistan Environment Protection Act (PEPA) 1997 and the Procurement Rules.

The petitioners asked the court to declare the project illegal for violation of the environmental protection provisions. Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry on March 14 had dismissed the petition saying the court will not stop any project that would benefit citizen.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th_, 2011.

COMMENTS (5)

Azam | 13 years ago | Reply Bicycles, motorcycles, rickshaws, wagons, trucks, buses and donkey carts (all of which use roads, including the one in question) are not “elite” modes of transport. These so-called environmentalists are inadvertantly doing more damage to the environment than if they allowed these projects to go ahead. The same environmentalists blocked the widening of the Canal Road on environmental grounds. Result: Traffic jams that end up causing more pollution through greater carbon emissions resulting from slow or idle traffic. Sometimes when roads are built, more trees end up being planted than were there in the first place. Case in point: Lahore Ring Road where trees have been planted in otherwise barren agricultural or semi-urban land. Mass transit systems are very expensive to build, are high-maintenance and need to be comprehensive (i.e. provide citywide coverage) in order to be successful. Building one or two lines won’t do because people are not going to embark or dis…embark 5 or 10 km from their homes and destinations. A mass transit system, in order to be successful, should be not more than 2 km from your home and 2 km from your destination and also provide a safe pedestrian infrastructure for those 2 km that you’re going to walk. Otherwise, you’re not going to use it. In order to have that kind of coverage you need a network of criss-crossing lines covering all major localities of the city costing billions of USD. I don’t see that happening in the near future in Pakistan. In the meantime, you have to deal with your choke points. Kalma Chowk, being the confluence of two of Lahore’s main traffic arteries, will be choked even if you build a mass transit system and you will still need a flyover and underpass.

Khurram Ashfaq | 13 years ago | Reply @Ahmad: I do agree with you on the point of educating the public and one bus against sixty cars but the roads expansion cannot be stopped on these grounds. I don’t know if you have experienced or not the peak hours at Kalama Chowk but ask those who travel through it on daily basis. A flyover will ensure the flow of traffic without any stop signal from all sides of the crossing. As far as the multiple flyovers are concerned, no issue if required as in the west you can view many examples of multiple flyovers.

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Ahmad | 13 years ago | Reply This is a good thing only in the short term where it might help, but is an unmitigated disaster in the long term. This flyover means more road space, which when you combine with a complete lack of driving sense and an increasing number of cars, means the rush hour will only get worse in the medium to long term. What will you do then? Build a Kalma Chowk flyover for the already existing flyover? The answer is educating the public about driving rules and improving the public transportation system. Some food for thought: Compare the space a bus with, say 60 people, takes on the road as compared to 60 cars, each with a single person.

Jahangir | 13 years ago | Reply @skhan how about a better public transport system?

s khan | 13 years ago | Reply Hire Ahmad Rafay Alam as consultant no issues, Rafay Alam do you have a workable alternate solution please cough it out. Did you EVER CONSIDERED THE POISONOUS POLLUTION to our Water System which is rendering our rivers void of water life & causing water unfit for human consumption & agriculture use. Please do not cause any nuisance value

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