The government will give annual subsidy of Rs5.62 billion to the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) service.
According to officials, each train has a capacity of 1,000 passengers and about 250,000 people will be able to travel on them daily.
Initially, the one-way train fare has been fixed at Rs40 for six months. More slabs of fare will be introduced in later stages. The Orange Line train will consume electricity costing more than Rs1.9 billion annually.
The Orange Line train service will be inaugurated on Sunday and citizens will be able to travel on it from October 26. As many as 22 trains will be run on the tracks.
Citizens will get the travelling facility from Ali Town to Dera Gujran with modern transport facilities for Rs40 each. The train will cover a 27km distance in 45 minutes. The trains will run from 7.30am to 8.30pm.
The service has a Chinese and Pakistani crew of 3,668 employees. The 104 train drivers have come from China, who will return to their country after training Pakistani drivers and the train will be then be operated entirely by Pakistani drivers.
The list of guests has been prepared for the opening ceremony. Apart from Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, Chairman CPEC Authority Lieutenant General (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa will also attend the ceremony. The Chinese ambassador has also been invited.
Provincial Minister for Transport Jahanzeb Khan Khichi and General Manager Operations of Punjab Mass Transit Authority Syed Uzair Shah briefed the media in this regard.
The transport minister said the Orange Line train would initially run for 13 hours. He said the project would prove to be a milestone in transport facilities, which would benefit about 250,000 passengers daily. The citizens would be able to see the city of Lahore while reaching their destination.
The provincial minister said the transport running along the train route should be discontinued. He said a strategy was being prepared for the purpose.
The Punjab Mass Transit Authority general manager said each trip of a train would consume electricity of Rs14,000 to Rs16,000. Regarding the fare of Rs40, he said it had been fixed for six months only. ”In the light of the data obtained during the first six months after the train service begins, we will introduce more than one slab of fares so that the citizens pay as much as the distance of their travel.” Officials said the fare in future would be from Rs10 to Rs40.
So far, over Rs 300 billion has been spent on the project.
However, the date of the inauguration of the service has been changed thrice. The event is currently scheduled for October 25.
Initially, 20 trains will run on the track, each having five coaches. The train will arrive at a station after every five minutes.
Sources revealed that some issues had emerged during the test run of the train.
The construction work on the project was started in 2014 and it will have 26 stations. Among these, two stations will be underground and the remaining 24 on the ground.
The tains will run from Ali Town to Thokar Niaz Baig, Canal View, Hanjarwal, Wahdat Road, Awan Town, Shah Noor Studio, Band Road, Samanabad, Lake Road Chauburji, GPO, Lakshmi Chowk, Railway Station, UET, Baghbanpura, Shalimar Garden, Pakistan Mint, Salamatpura and Dera Gujran.
The health department is likely to announce the standard operating procedures soon to run the train with minimum risk of spread of coronavirus.
The security and ticketing system of OLMT has been outsourced. The Chinese experts will stay in Pakistan until the start of the train operation and keep reviewing it and will also train the local staff.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2020.
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