ISLAMABAD: (Web Desk) – Supreme Court (SC) has on Friday overturned the decision of Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding Orange Line Metro Train, paving the way for the project to be completed.
The provincial high court had halted the work on the mega project but government of Punjab had filed an appeal against the decision in the apex court. A 5-member bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan had been hearing the case and the decision had been reserved by the bench on April 17.
Other members of the bench included Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Ijaz ul-Hassan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel. Justice Maqbool Baqar wrote a dissenting note in the verdict. However, the other four members of the bench decided in favour of the Punjab government.
It is pertinent to mention here that SC has set 31 conditions in order to make sure that the project is transparent. LHC had halted the progress on the project in August 2016 in view of the damage expected to the historical sites in Lahore including GPO, Chauburji, Lakshmi Building and Shalimar Gardens among others.
The project had been started in 2015 by the Punjab government and was estimated to be completed by December 2017 but the halting of the project upon LHC’s decision and the delay in the judgment by the apex court caused major delays, increasing the costs as well as the time for the completion of the project. Initially the project was to be completed in a budget of approximately 165 billion rupees but some estimates now claim that the cost might go up to 250 billion rupees.
Orange Line Metro Train will have the capacity to commute 250,000 passengers per day and the numbers are expected to rise to 500,000 by 2025.
