LAHORE, Oct 30: The Light Transit Rail (LTR) project is being revived and a meeting in this regard is likely to be held in Islamabad next week, it is learnt.

Work on the Rs16.65 billion overhead rail project to be executed with the financial help of the government of Japan came to a halt when Japan imposed economic sanctions after Pakistan detonated its nuclear devices in May 1998.

Following last week’s lifting of sanctions by Japan, the local authorities are expecting a green signal soon from the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) which, they say, has been evincing a keen interest in the project.

Officials of the Traffic and Engineering Planning Agency (TEPA) of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) said if revived the three-year delay in the execution of the project would have no effect on its cost keeping in view the downslide of rupee against dollar during this period.

The OECF had extended a loan facility at 2.3 per cent mark-up rate to cover 85 per cent cost of the project which was to be completed in five years. The loan was repayable in 30 years with 10 years as grace period.

Fifteen per cent expenses of the project were to be funded by the federal government by extending an interest-free loan to the LDA which had been assigned the role of the execution agency.

Fourteen stations had been planned at the 13-km-long overhead rail track — from Bhati Chowk to Model Town M-Block. Average speed of the train, which could transport 167,919 to 536,000 passengers daily, had been suggested at 32 km per hour.

Pre-feasibility study of the project had been completed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and TEPA in 1991, while the second study in this regard had been done by World Bank consultants in 1993.

The feasibility study was completed in 1994 and the project was taken over by the National Mass Transit Authority (NMTA) in 1995. It was finalized by an OECF appraisal mission in 1995 and the NMTA Board okayed its PC-1 the same year.

The NMTA Council (equivalent to ECNEC) gave a green signal for the project in 1996, while the economic affairs division took up and decided the plan in 1997.