Transport being organised on modern lines, says Shahbaz

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that the transport system in Lahore and other cities of the province was being organised on the pattern of developed countries.

He said this while laying the foundation stone of the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in the country at Ferozepur Road on Sunday. In the first phase of the construction, a 27-kilometre long track would be laid from Gajjumata to Shahadara and this project would be completed in collaboration with Turkish companies.

Talking to the media on this occasion, he said that an agreement had been made with Turkish firms for reserving a lane for buses in Lahore in the first phase. He disclosed that a 15-kilometre long portion under the Bus Rapid Transit System would be completed in February or March, next year. He claimed that a safe and rapid transport facility would be made available to the people through this project, adding that an agreement had also been made in the solid waste management sector with the cooperation of Turkish companies in the provincial capital which would be implemented next February. He expressed his gratitude to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Mayor of Istanbul Kadir Topbas and technical institutions for the cooperation by various companies of Turkey in different sectors. He said that gratitude for the role being played by Turkey in the development of various sectors could not be expressed in words.

Earlier, representatives of Turkish companies met Shahbaz Sharif and gave him a detailed briefing with regard to the important aspects of the project. Shahbaz Sharif also inaugurated a slaughterhouse, completed at a cost of one billion rupees in collaboration with Iran, at Shahpur Kanjran.