LAHORE: The Punjab government has asked the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to avoid implementing the Johar Town Main Boulevard (Khayaban-i-Firdausi) signal-free corridor after it learnt that the project involves cutting of over 60 trees and creating possible traffic and other issues.

The government has also raised concern over implementation of the project without seeking approval of the LDA governing body, directing the authorities concerned to hold detailed deliberations in this regard.

“Work on the project, which was supposed to be launched last week, was stopped after the Lahore commissioner intervened on the reports of cutting of trees and creation of various civic issues that may disrupt routine businesses on this major road,” LDA Vice Chairman (VC) SM Imran told Dawn on Tuesday. “He also questioned why the current LDA governing body didn’t discuss this important project, which was already approved by the previous governing body during the PML-N regime.”

The LDA was set to start uprooting more than 60 trees to execute the project on April 7, while the environment department had also issued a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) in this regard.

Lahore has already lost approximately 5,000 trees to various infrastructural development projects during the last five years.

The LDA VC said the signal-free corridor project, which has been put on hold, would now be discussed in a meeting of a development committee headed by him and comprising the commissioner, planning and development chairman and a senior official.

Under the rules, he said, the LDA director general was the competent authority to approve projects worth up to Rs100 million. “This project, which is worth around Rs250 million, will be submitted to the committee. After discussions, the committee will reject or forward the same to the governing body for approval,” Mr Imran explained. He had also asked the LDA’s urban development wing and the Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency to design workable projects that could help ease public access and mobility in the city, he added.

Talking to Dawn, a senior official said there were some issues that forced the government to postpone execution of the project. The issues included cutting of trees, non-approval or revalidation from the current governing body, traffic, public mobility and obsolete model of the corridor.

“Besides cutting of trees, we also came to know through traffic police that the signal-free project may disrupt smooth flow of traffic, as similar projects implemented earlier proved to be a bad experience. It enhanced the ratio of accidents, so the Punjab Safe City Authority was entrusted with the task to carry out a survey of the existing signal-free corridors to assess traffic patterns, number of motorists, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians, accidents, traffic congestion, blockade etc,” the official, who requested anonymity, explained.

He said the LDA has also been asked why it did not get this project revalidated by the current governing body. “At a time when the government has no money and it is already reviewing previous projects, especially signal-free ones, why does the LDA want to execute it? This project cannot be implemented till receipt of recommendation from the safe city body, traffic police and other stakeholders,” he maintained.

Earlier, the LDA VC, while talking to the media during his visit to various sites in the city, said that public requirements, ground realities and local conditions would be key factors for launching new development projects in Lahore instead of personal choices of decision makers.

“Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has directed for personally evaluating the inevitability of development projects to be launched by the LDA,” he added.

He said the prolonged traffic jams and long queues of vehicles at Shahkam Chowk had become a routine matter, which was bothering thousands of commuters daily. “The LDA has proposed construction of a dual carriageway flyover at this point for which two proposals have been prepared. The construction of a two-lane flyover will cost Rs1.92 billion and a three-lane flyover Rs2.25bn,” he explained.

He further told journalists that widening and improvement of 4.7km-long stretch of New Defence Road -- from Labour Colony to Shahkam Chowk -- will also be carried out for Rs850 million.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2019