The Punjab government has launched an ambitious plan of modernising Lahore’s mass transit system including the country’s first underground metro train system and electric buses.
According to media reports, the government has started working on design and feasibility report of the underground metro train project named as the Blue Metro Train service.
The Blue Metro Train is a 27 Kilometre long project which will start from Valencia Town to Babu Sabu Chowk. The project will take three years to reach the completion phase while the estimated cost of the project is Rs600 billion. However, this is the estimated price while the exact price of the project will be determined after the completion of feasibility report.
The Blue Metro train would pass through major metropolitan areas like Johar Town, Faisal Town, Garden Town, Kalma Chowk, Gulberg Main Boulevard and Allama Iqbal Town.
It should be highlighted that Lahore already has a high quality rapid transit train system known as Orange Line Metro which spans 27.1 Kilometres with 26 stations. The Orange Line station starts from Dera Gujran Terminal and concludes at Ali Town Terminal.
Out of these 26 terminals, two are underground while the rest of twenty four terminals are elevated from ground. This project was the first of its kind in Pakistan when it became operational in 2020.
Likewise, the Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif launched the “Green Punjab” initiative under which the government would introduce electric buses in Lahore.
Maryam Nawaz while speaking at the launching ceremony stated that 27 electric buses had already arrived in Lahore, while plans to introduce 500 more electric buses by August.
CM Maryam also revealed that the electric buses project would be expanded to Faisalabad and Gujranwala by next year.
Metro Systems around the world
Mass transit systems have been the norm in metropolitan cities since the 19th century beginning in the Western nations such as United Kingdom. The London Underground is the world’s first underground train system which opened in 1863.
The Chinese Shanghai Metro, opened in 1993, is the world’s longest underground rail networkd at 896 kilometres and the busiest with the highest annual ridership reaching approximately 2.83 billion passenger trips.
Read more: Rawalpindi’s first pedestrian street.
