LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to revive the land acquisition process for the Lahore metropolitan city’s major urban infrastructure project — Gulberg-Babu Sabu elevated expressway — and directed the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to complete it at the earliest.

The process was stopped in 2017 following a strong resistance put up by the residents of Gulberg, Shadman and Gulshan-i-Ravi and other localities against the proposed construction while lack of funds was among other issues.

Now the cost of the project has also risen massively from Rs18 billion to Rs85 billion, Dawn has learnt.

“We have started contacting the affected people whose land, mostly houses, was marked and enlisted in the award list in 2016 under the Land Acquisition Act. We are requesting them to visit the LDA offices or the respective officers ( of revenue department) and receive their compensation as decided in 2016,” an LDA officer associated with the project told Dawn on Saturday.

Project shelved twice since 2016

Requesting anonymity, the official said the land acquisition (801 kanal) process had been launched in 2016 and the final award under the land acquisition act was announced in 2017. Though some received compensation, most of them rejected it. Those who did receive compensation were yet to hand over the possession to the government.

“The package they (the landowners) had demanded was based on the pattern of hefty compensation given to the affectees of the land acquisition for the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project. It included price of property as per market rates, disturbance allowance, relocation allowance etc. But the government didn’t entertain their request,” the official said.

As a result, he said, the government was left with no option but to drop the plan in 2017.

According to him, the outcome of the Panama case and criminal cases against bureaucrats by NAB were among others reasons for the shelving of the plan.

The official said the PTI government ignored executing several project in Lahore as well as other major cities of the country. However, in beginning of the year 2022, it started thinking about this scheme. And finally in last quarter of last year, Parvez Elahi-led Punjab government gave a go-ahead to resume work on this project but soon the Punjab Assembly was dissolved.

“At present, the revised PC-1 of the project worth Rs85 billion is being discussed in the Punjab Planning & Development Department. The government has also written to the Election Commission of Pakistan to allow launch of this project,” the official said. Let see what happens next, as we have been told to complete the land acquisition process. We have started telling the affectees to get compensation and give possession of the land to the government.

“And those who have already received compensation but didn’t handover the possession of their property to us have been asked to leave the property within a certain period,” he said.

On the other hand, Lahore Commissioner/LDA DG Muhammad Ali Randhawa also held a meeting on the issue on Saturday and directed the officers concerned to quickly complete the process. “There should be one-window counter at the LDA to facilitate the people for getting compensation for the land they are surrendering to the government,” he said, terming the project a game changer for Lahore.

“If completed, the people would have a signal free access to motorway within 8 to 10 minutes from Gulberg,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2023