Orange Line stretches in all directions
Up to 200,000 passengers travel daily to reach their destinations in Lahore through the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) -- a landmark project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
No other city in the country has such a fast and comfortable public sector transport facility like the OLMT, which is at par with the international standards.
It is the first-ever, electric train, which facilitates dwellers of major parts of the provincial capital. The General Manager (Operations) of the OLMT, Syed Uzair Shah, said the Punjab Masstransit Authority (PMA) had been taking several measures to bring more and more people into using the train, which was being utilised by many visitors from other parts of the country as well. The train having 26 stations and 27.1-km-long track travels at a maximum speed of 80 km/h. It begins operation at 6:15 a.m. which continues until 10:00 p.m. As an early-harvest project of CPEC, the Orange Line was jointly established by the China Railway Group Corporation and the China North Industries Corporation, which started its operation on October 25, 2020 in Lahore.
Shah said that around 200,000 people commute daily on Orange Line Train which had a capacity of 245,000, mentioning that 75 million people had used the train since its inception.
“The fare was initially fixed at Rs40. However, a revised fare structure had been introduced to further facilitate the commuters under which the fare was fixed as per distance travelled. On taking a four-kilometre minimum ride, it would cost Rs20 only whereas the maximum fare would be 40 rupees,” the general manager said.
He said the provincial government was providing a subsidy of Rs6.5 billion annually to the project, out of which Rs1.5 billion was being paid for electricity as the train ran with zero emissions, saving people from pollution.
“Due to rising inflation and increasing petroleum prices, more people are opting for the OLMT journeys,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2023.a