ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is hopeful of engaging China Railway to run a light rail transit (LRT) system in the capital.

LRT is a high-capacity public transport with electric trains that ply on dedicated tracks.

The CDA management and officials of China Railway recently held a meeting which, according to the civic agency’s officials, ended on a positive note.

Member Planning Waseem Hayat Bajwa told Dawn on Friday: “A few days ago, we held a meeting with officials of China Railway for the LRT. Now, we will meet again in next 10 days to hold more discussions.”

Mr Bajwa said he was hopeful that in the next meeting there will be some sort of a breakthrough.

“The first meeting remained very successful,” he said, adding that the CDA wanted to launch LRT on two routes — Islamabad Expressway and from the new airport to H-8.

CDA officials said in the past the civic agency had pointed out several routes for LRT. However, now it is focusing only on two routes — from Rawat GT Road to Faisal Mosque and from H-8 to the airport.

They said railway’s old track was already laid from H-8 to Golra which could be used for LRT.

A CDA official said during the meeting the Chinese officials were given a briefing about the available railway track from H-8 to Golra.

He said both LRT routes in future could also be linked with the existing network of metro buses.

The member planning said if China Railway’s proposal was accepted, both the parties could sign a government-to-government agreement.

A few months ago, the CDA had approached the Economic Affairs Division requesting for arrangement of funds from any international donor such as the Asian Development Bank or the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the project. However, China Railway was showing interest which was a positive development for the civic agency.

The CDA officials said if talks remained successful with Chinese officials in the upcoming meetings, the civic agency will ask them to lay the tracks and operate the LRT.

“We will provide them backhand support and they will operate independently,” said the officials, adding that if the Chinese company faced financial issue the government could provide the remaining funds to make the project sustainable.

The capital city has no railway system for the local population while the metro bus service on a few routes is unable to fully cater to the transportation needs. As per initial working paper, a total of four potential routes have been identified for the LRT.

They are a 30.5-km-long route from Rawat to Faisal Mosque on Islamabad Expressway and Faisal Avenue, 13.7km route from N5 commonly known as G.T Road to Pakistan Monument via Srinagar Highway, 27.5km route from Rawat T-Chowk to 26 No Stop on G.T Road and 10.4-km-long from route Pirwadhai to Faizabad via Karnal Sher Khan Road. However, currently, the focus is only on two routes.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2023