LAHORE: The provincial metropolis will have the launch of two mega development schemes soon as the work has started for legal procedures related to revision of cost estimation, approval bidding and award of project etc.

The two projects include making Firdaus Market Underpass (Gulberg) — Defence Mor (Walton Road) via Cavalry intersection and Ghora Chowk (Cantt) – a signal-free corridor by constructing of a four-lane underpass at Cavalry Chowk, a four-lane flyover at Ghora Chowk and remodeling of the Defence Mor intersection with construction of a four-lane underpass at Bedian Road (DHA Phase-5 roundabout).

“Once completed, a large number of citizens will benefit from these two new projects. These projects will also help in smooth flow of traffic, improve environment, reduce travel time and save cost of fuel/energy,” Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa, also director general of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), said while visiting the sites of the proposed projects.

“The officers must speed up the work related to necessary approvals, leading to bidding and launch of these projects,” he said while talking to LDA officers.

According to project documents, the PC-1 cost of the signal-free project earlier approved by the government was over Rs3.2bn. However, it has now been revised to over Rs4.2bn due to cost escalation caused by inflation factors. Since completion of the project will take eight months, the number of the benefitting traffic has been estimated as 170,000 vehicles (per day). The benefitting areas/localities (population) include central part of Lahore (Gulberg, Cantonment, Walton and adjoining areas that will have signal-free.

The traffic management plan during the upcoming construction of the project had also been proposed under which the Masood Anwari Road shall remain open for traffic by two-lane service road on both sides.

“The traffic coming from Cantt, Shami Road will be diverted on the Khursheed Alam Road towards Ghora Chowk and onwards. The traffic at Khalid Butt Chowk and Ghora Chowk will be managed locally by utilising existing spaces,” according to the plan.

“This project was already approved by the government but it couldn’t be executed due to non-availability of funds. This caused in the cost escalation due to delay in launch, thus forcing the authorities concerned to go for revising the cost estimation due to inflation,” an official associated with the project told Dawn, hoping that the planning & development department will soon approve the revised PC-1

The DHA phase-5 roundabout project will cost over Rs2.8bn as per the PC-1. The need for planning and designing this project emerged keeping in view the confluence of major roads—Bedian Road, Ring Road and traffic existing/entering DHA, insufficient capacity of the existing roundabout and long queues of vehicles due to traffic congestion.

The project will have a four-lane dual carriageway underpass, provision of protected U-turns etc. it will take six months to complete.

Mr Randhawa inspected various ongoing development projects, including the Lahore Bridge (Qainchi) expansion project and sought speeding up the pace of work. He also asked the officers to also complete the Samanabad-Gulshan Ravi underpass as per timeline. On this occasion, the LDA UD Wing Engineering team led by Mazhar Hussain Khan (Chief Engineer-1) gave a detailed briefing on various proposed and ongoing projects.

It merits mentioning that besides the aforementioned proposed and ongoing development schemes, a mega project—Kalma Chowk Remodeling Scheme – having two underpasses is also underway these days.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2023