Chief minister approves budget for the Punjab Mass Transit Authority. PHOTO: NNI
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday directed officials concerned to form separate steering committees for management of metro bus service in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan. He also asked them to undertake immediate measures to run buses on feeder routes.
He was speaking at the 7th meeting of the Punjab Mass Transit Authority (PMTA). Earlier, the chief minister approved the budget for the PTMA.
Sharif also sought development of commercial zones along the routes of metro bus service.
Speaking at the occasion, the chief minister said that the provincial government was cognisant of the importance of a reliance public transport infrastructure for economic development. He said it had established metro bus services in three cities of the province and was starting the Orange Line train project in Lahore. Soon, he said, bus services would be started on feeder routes to help commuters travel to metro bus stations.
He said thousands of people were benefiting from the service in Lahore and Multan. He added that the number of beneficiaries would increase further once a bus service was started on feeder routes.
The chief minister praised former National Assembly Member Hanif Abbasi and the Rawalpindi commissioner for timely launch of the metro bus service in Rawalpindi. He also commended Lahore Transport Company chairman Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan for overseeing start of work on the Orange Line Metro Train project.
LTC chairman Hassaan said work on the project could be started in time because of the chief minister’s efforts in securing investment for the project from a Chinese company.
Earlier, the PMTA managing director briefed the meeting on the authority activities planned for the year. MNAs Malik Ibrar Ahmad and Waheed Alam Khan, former MNA Hanif Abbasi, Provincial Assembly Members Khwaja Imran Nazir and Ramzan Siddique Bhatti, former MPA Mian Muhammad Nauman and PHA vice chairman Iftikhar Ahmad were present at the occasion.
The meeting also decided that horticulture and landscaping work along the route of the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train project would be handed over to the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA). Talking to The Express Tribune, PHA director general Mian Shakeel Ahmad said that besides landscaping along the route, funds allocated to the PHA (one percent of the total project cost) would also be used to plant trees in forests across the province in lieu of those cut along the route of the metro train.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2015.
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