THE historical city of Lahore is under serious threat from state-sponsored vandalism under the cover of development schemes that nobody can justify.

Since this concerns the rights of not only the millions of people who live in the historical city but also of the entire population of the province, it is a national matter.

The Lahore Conservation Society and the Lahore Bachao Committee have been mobilising civil society organisations, especially independent authorities in the development, transport and environment sectors, against a monstrous project to build an expressway to link a privileged Gulberg neighbourhood with the motorway to Islamabad (M-2). The plan envisages an expenditure of Rs5,700 million to build a 10km expressway comprising an eight-lane overhead carriageway and a six-lane road at the ground level, starting from a point in Gulberg’s main boulevard and joining the motorway at Babu Sabu interchange.

More important than technical flaws in the expressway project is the extent of dislocation it will cause.

The independent group working on the project alleges a number of flaws in it, such as: the eight-lane expressway found no mention in any of the three recently approved urban development plans, including the Integrated Strategic Development Plan, announced by the Lahore Development Authority and Urban Unit last year, and the Lahore Urban Transport Master Plan.

The PC-1 document has reportedly been prepared by the contractors and not, as is customary, by the Punjab government.

The feasibility of hemming in the Sukh (comfort) Nala, a natural drain that served a large part of Punjab but is now called the Ganda (dirty) Nala or Dukh (distress) Nala, is questionable as it could increase the hazards to people living along it.

The Environmental Impact Assessment report does not take into account the increase in noise, air pollution and heat levels and the effect the cutting down of more than 5,200 trees will have.

The elevated expressway will cross the elevated tracks laid for the metro bus service and the projected distance between the two will be a mere 1.5 metres as against the international standard requirement of 5.5 metres.

The cost of building the road tracks is unusually high even by world standards.

The cost-recovery formula is based on a 50-year period as against the usual system of expecting recovery over 30 years.

The estimate of the expressway taking about 14,000 vehicles per day either way seems to be exaggerated.

Far more important than technical flaws in the project is the extent of dislocation it will cause. For instance, 563 houses, most of them in Gulberg area, will be destroyed. The eight lanes of the expressway will be laid over the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (among other important public service institutions) and the six ground lanes will be laid under the medical facility.

Besides, the legitimacy of spending Rs5.7 billion out of provincial resources on a facility meant for a single city is being challenged with greater vigour than was the case when objections were raised to the heavily subsidised metro bus service.

Above all, civil society sees no need for this expressway project and wants the government to justify it. The authors of the project claim that it will considerably reduce the time the privileged Gulberg residents take to hit the Lahore-Islamabad motorway. What logic is used to pander to the abnormal wishes of a small part of the elite? The estimate of 14,000 vehicles entering or exiting the expressway each day is questioned by a transport expert as highly exaggerated and unlikely to be met, just as the target of traffic anticipated on the motorway itself has been reached around 20 per cent only.

While discussing the project, Kamil Khan Mumtaz, well-known architect, conservationist and heritage-lover quotes Arif Hasan, Pakistan’s leading authority on urban planning, to the effect that instead of planning we have only projects. In a strongly worded protest, Kamil Khan Mumtaz says that foreign parties seize “a lucrative investment opportunity (usually public and environmental assets, such as forest reserves, ocean coasts, railways, canals, village commons — shamlat — or historic towns)”.

They put together a project which includes public/sovereign guarantees for payments of investors’ profits. The poisonous pill is then sugar-coated with catchphrases and sold to the government and public in attractive packaging including sustainability, poverty alleviation, income generation, foreign investment, progress, et al. “These mega projects,” according to him, “result in mega disasters for the environment and the affected populations.”

Unfortunately, the eight-lane expressway is not the only project of its nature in Lahore. Another abuse of the development logo is the Ravi Riverfront housing scheme. It envisages a colony for the neo-rich along a stream that no longer qualifies as a river and involves destruction of thousands of acres of orchards and ruination of families who have been supplying the people with fresh fruit. But of this bizarre scheme at another time.

Quite obviously, civil society criticism of the expressway project challenges the development paradigm that smacks of imperial arbitrariness and has no regard for the community’s pride in its heritage and the people’s right to their environment, even their right to a clear view of buildings (such as the Badshahi mosque or the Government College). It also challenges the lopsided priorities of the government that is keen to waste thousands of millions of rupees to suit the whims of a few while it does not have funds to meet its obligations to guarantee universal primary education or add a block to the overcrowded children’s hospital.

There should still be time to review not only the misconceived and prohibitively wasteful expressway project but also to develop a forward-looking framework in which development priorities can be fixed for the greatest good of the greatest number and this without taking liberties with their sociocultural rights. As a first step the government may organise a meeting between sarkari and independent urban/transport experts, put the relevant documents to a searching analysis and halt any further activities.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play