LAHORE: Following fresh guidelines issued by the National Command Operation Centre revising lockdown restrictions in view of the apparent reduction in new Covid-19 cases, the Punjab Masstransit Authority has decided to resume operations of Metro Bus service in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi from Sunday (today).

The Speedo bus operations on all feeder routes in Lahore and Multan will also be resumed from Sunday, while an official source said the Orange Line Metro Train operations are set to resume from Monday (tomorrow).

“According to a fresh notification, we have now no restrictions over resumption of the intra-city Metro and Speedo buses and the Orange Line train operations. We will resume Metro bus operations consisting of 157 articulated buses (64 in Lahore, 58 in Rawalpindi and 35 in Multan) from Sunday. The Speedo bus operations consisting of 300 buses (200 in Lahore and 100 in Multan) will also begin from Sunday,” the official explained while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

He said the resumption of Orange Line Metro Train operations would take at least a day (testing etc), so that would resume by Monday (tomorrow). “On Sunday, our teams will check the track, equipment, trains etc. Moreover, the cleanliness staff will also remove the kites and strings dropped on the track,” he added.

On the other hand, vaccination resumed at all centres, including the Expo Centre, on Saturday. According to the deputy commissioner, the time for vaccination had also been extended at all centres till 1am. However, the Expo Centre will remain open 24 hours for vaccination.

Furthermore, the city administration detained 350 people for not wearing masks during Eid holidays. However, they were released after sometime on promises of wearing masks in public spaces.

LWMC: The Lahore Waste Management Company claimed to have lifted and disposed of around 22,000 tonnes of waste from May 12 to 15, according to a press release. “We also received 200 complaints that were resolved by our teams,” the statement claimed.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2021