Ravi River housing project to overcome urbanisation challenges
The Ravi River has all but dried up. Experts say Pakistan is turning into a water-scarce country with water levels at all reservoirs going down at an alarming rate. PHOTO: ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS
Like other cosmopolitan cities of the world, the city of Lahore faces debilitating challenges of governance, inequality, technology, resources, transportation and environment.
To overcome these issues, the Ravi River Front Urban Development (RRFUD) project was seen as a solution since the country’s inception. The previous governments had put the project off, on one pretext or the other as they lacked will to address the ills of a sprawling metropolis.
However, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led (PTI) government decided to address the city’s major challenges of overpopulation, urban poverty and environmental damage through the development of a planned new city of the RRF.
The RRFUD project, after remaining in doldrums for years, after the incumbent government moved to resolve the city’s existing issues and revive the city’s culture by embracing the needs of change and stepping up to make it an economic powerhouse.
NESPAK Engineer Imran Zafar, who has worked closely on the project, stated that the RRFUD project will rub shoulders with cities like Dubai, adding that the project had been planned on Dubai model. “However, it will take some time for the project’s fruition.”
New Lahore to rise from remains of Ravi River
He further said that the only difficulty was to initiate the gigantic project as the previous government had shelved it but Prime Minister Imran Khan had taken the decision to build a future city in the country. Speaking about the housing capacity in the new city, he claimed that the project could accommodate the entire population of the city. “As many as 12 new cities including Residential City, Medical City, Downtown, Commercial Hub, Urban Farms and Miscellaneous Use City will be developed in the first phase.”
The second phase will include Innovation City spanning over 1,370 acres while the third phase will include Knowledge City, Sports City and Eco City spread over an area of 14,000 acres, he highlighted. “A total land area of 103,271 acres will be acquired from public and government control for the development of RRFUD.”
The towning expert elaborated that in the initial phase of the project, a lake covering 46 kilometres area, six wastewater treatment plants, three barrages and urban forest would be developed during the first three years.
Responding to a question, he said that provision of water for drinking and irrigation is the top priority of the incumbent government for which wastewater and surface water treatment plants will be installed.
“Development of the lake will purge the Ravi River from domestic and industrial waste and provide 271 billion litres of water. The wastewater treatment plants would help treat 2.4 billion litres of water daily and this water will irrigate 75,000 acres of land.”
Regarding the benefits of RRFUD, he explained that the development of the new city will definitely decrease the burden on Lahore and would improve civic amenities, adding that the present city, which is centuries old, had sprawled into a messy housing facility over the passage of time.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 15th, 2020.