The director general of the Environment Department is to appear in the court today (Wednesday) to respond to questions about the environmental impact of the Orange Line Metro Train project. Director General Javed Iqbal was supposed to appear on Tuesday before a division bench of the Lahore High Court hearing petitions against the project but never turned up.
Lawyer Azhar Siddique taking up the petitions has accused the government of failing to ensure safety measures for workers engaged in the construction work. On Tuesday, he claimed two more workers died when a pillar collapsed at a construction site. The argument prompted the court to question the government's contract with the Chinese as it had engaged local construction companies in the project.
The court said, "Had a Chinese company been involved in the construction work, there would have been hardly any deaths." The lawyer then went on to argue that there were hardly any beds in public hospitals yet the government decided to spend over Rs 200 billion for two percent people of the population. He also talked about the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Pvt) Limited having given the contract without an open tender and many environmental hazards that could harm the nearby population. The controversial Orange Line Metro is expected to run on a 27.1-kilometre line, of which 25.4 kilometres will be elevated. The service will initially benefit around 250,000 passengers a day. The capacity will be increased to 500,000 passengers a day by 2025.
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