Lahore to get monorail

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=42274&version=1&template_id=41&parent_id=23
Lahore to get monorailPublished: Tuesday, 28 June, 2005, 09:12 AM Doha Time

LAHORE: Pakistan’s largest city and the country’s cultural capital - Lahore - is set to get a monorail to alleviate its traffic blues, sources said here yesterday.

The Punjab government will award a consultancy to a foreign firm next week to study Lahore’s transport system and suggest what kind of monorail system suits it best.

“The study will be completed in four months after the award of the contract,” Punjab Transport Secretary Agha Nadeem said. “It will tell us whether we should run underground, overhead or on-the-surface trains.”

He said four foreign companies - from Malaysia, China, Germany and Hong Kong - had pre-qualified for the contract. “We called international tenders for the consultancy and have received bids. The winner will hopefully be finalised by next week. The whole process is very transparent,” Nadeem said.

A source in the Punjab government said Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi was keen to complete the $500mn monorail project before his term expires in October 2007.

“He wants to be remembered as the man who built a monorail in Lahore,” the source said.

A rail mass transit system for Lahore has been a focus of discussion in government circles for a long time. The feasibility of a light rail transit system was studied by Japanese development organisation JICA in 1991, when Nawaz Sharif was prime minister.

It proposed a 13-km Lahore Rail Transport system. This study was reviewed and updated as a part of the World Bank funded ‘Lahore traffic and transport studies’ in 1993. The cost of the system was estimated at about $400mn but with better network coverage.

In 1995 Japan proposed to finance the original scheme with grants and loans of about $495mn, but the project could not be implemented due to various reasons.

The army government also worked on such a project in 2000 and a memorandum of understanding was signed, but again the project was dropped.

“I don’t know the exact reasons why the previous projects were shelved, but the 2000 study was dropped because the other party backed out,” Nadeem said

According to a report in the Malaysian press last month, a Malaysian firm is likely to be awarded the contract to build and operate the monorail transport network in Lahore.

Three or four Malaysian firms and a company from China had bid for the project, Chief Minister Elahi was quoted as saying. “The monorail project, planned in Lahore’s city centre, is scheduled to be launched this year under the BOT (build, operate and transfer) concept.”

Lahore’s roads are becoming increasingly congested, and Nadeem said over 5,000 passengers travel the city’s roads every hour.

“Five roads - The Mall, Ferozepur Road, Jail Road, Multan Road and Allama Iqbal Road - take 70% of the traffic load. Canal Road has also started taking a heavy load of traffic.” -Internews

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Re: Lahore to get monorail

since 1991, three times planned, never executed on the ground. hope this goes ahead now.
and if this goes ahead, i hope they plan routes well to transport masses not just to show it off.

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Re: Lahore to get monorail

Have to see it to believe it! Pakistan seems completely incapable of ever accomplishing any massive project unless someone from outside like the Chinese see it in their interest..
But keep your fingers crossed...

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Re: Lahore to get monorail

^Hey i never knew that,you being an Indian is so PakPatriot...

My handwriting...
My handwriting...
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Re: Lahore to get monorail

Just stating a fact. One of the most frustrating thing about Pakistan is the huge build up that the govt provokes. We all get our hopes up only to find the project languishing in a beuracratic jumble. Sometimes its one excuse sometimes another.
I will guarantee you that this project is full of holes, and even if it goes through something is always going to go wrong.
Take the New airport for Islamabad, now its pushed to september, and im guessing still wont happen. Take the KPT building in Karachi... Its languishing due to lack of funding or investors. Take the Karachi Cicular railway, still only in its infancy. Take the whole Karachi Maglev train! Well that one was a joke, but you get my drift, planning and implementation are severly lacking in Pak unless its done by some outside intrest.

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Re: Lahore to get monorail

The problem with Pakistani political/bureaucratic decision makers is that they are always riding on their high horses and are trying to make a name for them selves, building the largest Stadium ... , planning the first this..., and building the largest that with their name on them is still very important for them. In the process they completely forget (as if the remember in the first place) that who is it for and is it serving its ultimate purpose "Public Service”, but that’s hardly the goal in our planning.

I worked for two years on JICA/TEPA joint study for Lahore, the Japanese consultants kept on coming up low cost and practical solution to the traffic problems and the advisor of the then chief minister of Lahore (a bureaucrat) was more concerned on how the project should be the first of its kind in Punjab and should have "ever lasting" impact.

The Monorail is just another attempt in the same sequence of creating large and humongous projects with little and not benefit to general public. One just has to look at the ridership characteristics of trips in Lahore and the job centers in Lahore. There has been several studies in Lahore in this regard and in a city like Lahore with multiple CBD's (central business districts) almost 60% of the trips in the city are non-motorized i-e pedestrian trips, that’s just one fact. I think in city like Lahore if the state spends enough money on constructing footpaths along major roads in Lahore and separates vehicular and non vehicular traffic, its can reduce congestion by almost half in urban centers. But the decision makers are bent on marking their name on projects ...pity, that they are still thinking like the Mughals rules.

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Exactly, and in this effort to make the first monorail, they will end up with nothing in the end..

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only some parts of Lahore allowed to have tonga on road, thats only circular road I guess. there is no way we have this on other streets and roads. limited use is fine I guess. :)

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Those “some” parts are the whole north and northwest of Lahore and has the bulk of the population, which is almost 60% of total living within a 4 mile radius.

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So lets take a vote, who here is confidant that the Monorail will get the go ahead?

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well yes it would go ahead cos its being made by a malaysian firm not a pakistani one.

Aapna Channel
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Re: Lahore to get monorail

good news :k:

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arent japanese better than malaysians? its not the contractor that counts, but the committment of Government. who love to spend on studies and and then nothing get done in most ambitious projects.

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I agree these are hell of congested areas of lahore and may not have such high %age of population.

whats your point? allow tanga on other parts too, I think we should stop this mode of transportation altogether.

big cities always need well planned mass transit systems in place. tonga, rickshaws, chingchis will not work but creat more havoc. sooner or later Lahore and other big cities of Pakistan have to plan for grand transportation systems.

trains are the only solution to move masses.

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Hain, but I mean there has to be strong political backing from the govt or some outside power to get this done. The Motor Way for example had the the backing of Nawaz Sharif and his guys, Gawadar had the govt and the Chinese.. Who is supporting this other then the Nazim of Lahore?

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well the project has the backing of the CM parveiz elahi and the punjab gov.

and presidants and PM’s dont support these kind of projects, nawa shrif was just a dumbo.

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Yeah, Nawaz was a fool, but still proud of the Motor way... It paved the way for further improvement in Pak infrastructure///

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Re: Lahore to get monorail

[QUOTE]

A source in the Punjab government said Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi was keen to complete the $500mn monorail project before his term expires in October 2007.

“He wants to be remembered as the man who built a monorail in Lahore,” the source said.

[/QUOTE]

What a joke. Do these people really believe that we are that gullible, or that Pakistan has ever executed a major, major public project within 2 years from design stage to hand-over. I really cannot believe what I am reading. This is real Alice in Wonderland stuff. Things don't even happen that quickly in Dubai, and they have executed some of the largest infrastructure projects in the world in record time.

Well, he'll be remembered for something that's for sure.

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Re: Lahore to get monorail

  1. Did you guys notice that monorail for Lahore is on papers since 1991?
    Who the hell in this fast pace world has a time to simply live on ‘news’ for 15-20 years? Who knows still this is a news/paper work or really government idiots in Pakistan are going to do something!

  2. Plus Lahore is not the largest city of Pakistan as the Doha paper Gulf Times reported. Pakistan’s largest city is Karachi with over 14 million population and Lahore is not even Half of Karachi.

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karachi has a maglev system coming, so why would it want a mono rail,