LAHORE: The government has been misleading everyone consistently on all components of the Orange Line train project: cost, number of affectees, their economic and social plight and compensation.

Civil society organisations – the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the Women Action Forum and Lahore Conservation Society – and direct affectees of the project claimed on Monday as they got together at the HRCP office.

They also issued, what they called, a fact sheet to “bring out the truth” on the project. According to the ‘fact sheet’, the real cost of the project, which now can be verified through official documents, is close to Rs192 billion – not Rs165 billion as being claimed by the government. The initial cost did not include land acquisition worth Rs21.46 billion, movement of services – Lahore Electric Supply Company, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, Lahore Development Authority (Rs9.5 billion), traffic management (Rs257 million), media campaign (Rs257 million), horticulture (Rs515 million) and infrastructure contingencies (Rs1 billion). This brings the total to Rs192.8 billion according to available documents. While some news reports suggest that it now stands at Rs217 billion.

This cost still does not include destruction of homes and shops, financing cost (interest on loan), loss of business of street vendors, destruction of neighborhoods and communities, and blocking and destruction of heritage sites, environmental and health impacts, and need for 74 megawatts of electricity.

Civil society claims actual cost of project is Rs192bn, not Rs165bn

The document further stated that a commercial loan agreement with the Export-Import Bank of China has been kept secret under the guise of an inter-governmental framework agreement. Out of the $1.626 billion loan, $922 million will be used to buy equipment from Chinese firms. Interest alone on this loan in the first year is Rs5.5 billion.

If Rs20 is charged per trip on the train, the yearly operational subsidy will be Rs14 billion, which is almost equal to the combined annual budget of five largest hospitals of Lahore -- Mayo, Services, Jinnah, General and Sheikh Zayed 2015-16 budget was Rs15.6 billion. Development budget 2015-16 of all of Punjab for water supply and sanitation is Rs24 billion, education Rs55.5 billion and health Rs30.7 billion.

The fact sheet further stated that because of haphazard and rushed construction along Multan, McLeod, Nicolson and GT roads, thousands of shops, businesses, and livelihoods of hawkers have been affected along the 27km route, leading to a business loss of Rs21 billion over six months.

Finally, the civil society organisations wondered why the project was not discussed in the Punjab Assembly and no public consultation took place? Who decided to change the original design after two years of research and why? Why is an unsustainable, disjointed mass transit system being imposed on Lahore? Why did the archaeology department permit the project when it was clear that both Special Premises Act and Antiquities Act stipulating no construction within 200ft of a heritage site’s boundary, were being flouted? Why does the Environment Protection Agency have no capacity to evaluate environmental issues of the project? Why is no planning being done to provide all of Lahore with an integrated transport system?

The Orange train will serve only 2.2pc of Lahore’s transport needs and 0.2pc transport needs of the people of Punjab who will pay for it: about 60pc of daily commuters walk or use bicycles.

Four direct affectees of the project, who had lost their homes, denied getting proper compensation and claimed they had lost their livelihoods without being compensated for.

One of the affectees, Shabana, claimed her house was not even marked, but still demolished.

“Are some influentials bulldozing the houses of the poor to make spaces for commercial ventures?” she lamented and revealed a new dimension to the crisis.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2016