LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has decided to put the elevated expressway project on hold due to lack of funds and some other issues, mainly related to land acquisition.

During the last week of February this year, the Lahore High Court had scrapped the Rs18 billion project which has to link Gulberg with Motorway-II at Babu Sabu interchange via Gulshan-i-Ravi through construction of a 10km long elevated expressway, and set aside all notifications issued by the government under the Land Acquisition Act 1894.

The court had also asked why the LDA wanted to acquire land for the project in haste and why it didn’t take up this issue by following all legal formalities. Similarly, it observed that the project was being launched without approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report that was mandatory.

The court, according to officials, permitted the LDA at a later stage to launch the project. “At a later stage we accepted the stance of the court on procedure for land acquisition, assuring it that the LDA would get it according to a normal procedure rather than on an urgent basis. Therefore, the court allowed us to acquire the land for launching the project,” a Tepa official said.

Official says funds are not enough to work on many projects

The civil society and those whose land was to be acquired for this project had opposed this project.

The government had announced acquisition of 813-kanal land through a notification under sections 17(4) and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act 1894 for this project. The land that was to be acquired in various localities included Gulshan-i-Ravi (about 18 kanal), Ichhra (18.4 kanal), Shadman-II (about 10 kanal), Mozang (about 11 kanal), Ariya Nagar (about four kanal), Nawankot (20.3 kanal), Sanda Khurd (5.10 kanal), Sherakot (16.4 kanal), Nonarian (670 kanal) and Bhadru (about 40 kanal).

A senior LDA official told Dawn that the main reason for putting the project on hold was lack of funds. “Though previously funds were available for this project, right now the LDA has not much funds as it has to launch other projects like signal-free corridor from Gulberg’s Liberty Roundabout to Shadman and the Orange Line Metro Train Project,” he said.

As for delay in the elevated expressway project, the official said launch of this scheme could be problematic for citizens at a time when two mega projects are under way. The work on signal-free project has been resumed after the Supreme Court allowed the LDA to do so under certain technical conditions related to design/drawings. However, the LDA would surely launch the elevated expressway project after availability of funds, the official added.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2015

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