Here is the article I just wrote for SSPECTATOR ..... www.sspectator.com ........
It was sometime in the beginning of 1990s when we used to go to school on buses and I still remember that plenty of thoseVolvo buses were on the road. I used to hear from my father about other wonderful services like Omni bus and similar services in theLahore city but the fall of all such basic transport started in the beginning of 1990s.
The last time I sat in a Volvo school bus was sometime in 1990 or 1991. Then suddenly the system started vanishing and the wagon mafia took over slowly and replaced all the buses. It was indeed no less than a pain when you were forced to travel on these wagons and it was like being a chicken in the cage when all the seats were occupied. It was really a miserable time for commuters of this mega city who had no other option except travelling on these terrible means of transportation.
The Shahbaz Sharif government, during 1997-1999, had always claimed of planning a mass transit for the city but it was all just paper work and could never materialize. During this tenure, he made an agreement with the Korean bus company, Daewoo, to bring in better transportation which agreed to deploy more than 300 buses in the first phase and then increasing the number up to one thousand with time. The company’s buses were tax exempted but unfortunately, by the time it was able to bring only 50 buses, the Musharraf led coup ousted the Sharif’s government. Daewoo hardly managed to bring in only 20 more buses however to-date it was indeed the most modern air-conditioned intra-city bus service in the history of city’s transport service. I do remember how excited I was to get the ride of this bus when I saw the first one running on the roads.
The change in government was a blow to the urban transport projects as usually is the fate of all such projects in such a switch, and due to the lack of support and interest by the government of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, these buses started to vanish from the road. Meanwhile, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as a typical Pakistani politician was looking for a project in which he could to get all credit, so he got the idea of Lahore Mass Transit System from Asian Development Bank (ADB). The project feasibility was carried out by M/s MVAASIA (Pvt.) Ltd., and it was expected that work on this great project may start in the mid of 2007. But time passed by, and the delay was attributed to some money and design constraints. All this time, the urban city bus project kept deteriorating and no attention was given to it.
It was during this time, when Karachi’s Circular Railway project was revived with the idea of bringing better transport facilities to the city. Though Karachi had much better transport system as compared to Lahore, which comprised of large and mini buses, but still they were not up to the mark and were also not as per the demand of such a large city.
In 2008, Shahbaz Sharif got another chance by becoming Chief Minister of Punjab for the second time and it was then speculated among the fans of the Lahore Mass Transit Project that it will certainly be shelved as it was labeled as the Pervaiz Elahi’s project. It became apparent that Shahbaz Sharif will not accommodate the Lahore Mass Transit Project (LRMTS) as he initiated the Elevated Expressway Project which goes all along the Ferozpur Road. Most of the fans like me started to campaign against the Elevated Expressway through different means, such as I did it through my blog which is all about Lahore Mass Transit Project. I also came to know that ADB pressurized Shahbaz Sharif not to abandon the LRMTS Project as the Punjab government has already spent millions on the feasibility and the detailed design of the project.
Karachi Circular Railway meanwhile was also in the last stage of its design and JICA(Japan International Cooperation Association) was all ready to build the project with full funding. But the same unfortunate story of political interests brought the same fate of such mega projects in our country to Karachi Circular Railway, the project also went in doldrums. Now looking into the present condition of Karachi, I do not think the project can be materialized any time in the near future.
A recent news flash grabbed my attention once again when I heard that Shahbaz Sharif is negotiating with a Chinese company for the construction of Lahore Mass Transit System. At first, I thought it is again another point scoring move by this Chief Minister, but later came the news of signing of an MOU with a Chinese firm named M/S Norinco International and that the construction is scheduled to begin on August 14, 2011. Indeed, that is some big news to the hopeless commuters of this mega city, however, whether Shahbaz Sharif is really willing to build the mass transit system or is it just another political propaganda for personal glory remains to be seen.
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