Orange Line (Lahore Metro)
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Orange Line is an automated
rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...
line in
Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...
,
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
,
Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
and the first driverless metro in Pakistan. It is operated by the Punjab Mass Transit Authority and forms part of the
Lahore Metro Lahore Metro is an automated rapid transit system in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan and the first driverless metro in Pakistan. Four metro lines have been proposed, of which the Orange Line is operational. It is also Pakistan's first metro line syste ...
system."Good news on track: Lahore to get Pakistan’s first metro train"
''
Express Tribune ''The Express Tribune'' is a daily English-language newspaper based in Pakistan. It is the flagship publication of the '' Lakson Group'' media group. It is Pakistan's only internationally affiliated newspaper in a partnership with the '' Intern ...
'', Lahore, 23 Mar 2014. Retrieved on 20 October 2014.
The line is Pakistan's first metro train. The line spans with elevated and underground. The line is served by 26 stations and is expected to handle 250,000 passengers daily.


History

The project was initiated with a signed memorandum of understanding between the governments of Pakistan and China in May 2014. Financing for the project was secured in December 2015 when China's Exim Bank agreed to provide a soft loan of $1.55 billion for the project. Construction works on the project began in October 2015. Habib Construction Services was awarded the first phase in October 2015 for . In October 2016, Phase 2 of the project was awarded t
ZKB Engineers and Constructors
for civil works between Chauburji and Ali Town at a cost of 2000.39 billion rupees. On 12 January 2017, 7 labourers perished at a makeshift residence for Orange Line construction workers.
CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd. is one of the electric locomotive manufacturers in China. It is one of the subsidiaries of CRRC. History Predecessor Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Works was founded in 1936. CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., ...
rolled out the first of 27 trains for the metro on 16 May 2017. Testing and trial runs began in March 2018. In May 2018, Punjab Chief Minister of the time
Shahbaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif (born 23 September 1951) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who has served as the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan since March 2024, having previously been in the role between Ap ...
was present at the first test run of Lahore's Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT). On 25 October 2020, Orange Line Train was inaugurated by then Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar.CM Buzdar inaugurates Lahore Orange Line Train project
''
The News International ''The News International'', published in broadsheet size, is one of the largest English language newspapers in Pakistan. It is published daily from Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/ Islamabad. An overseas edition is published from London th ...
.'' Retrieved 2022-08-03


Design


Stations

The line has 26 stations. Anarkali and GPO stations are underground, while the remaining 24 are elevated. The rail line runs through the centre of each station, with platforms flanking the track. Elevated stations have a width of 22.5 metres, while Anarkali Station is 16 metres wide, and GPO Station is 49.5 metres wide. Elevated stations are all 102 metres long, while Anarkali and GPO Stations are 121.5 and 161.6 metres long, respectively. Anarkali and GPO Stations were initially planned to have two underground levels, Anarkali Station now both feature a ground-level concourse with one underground level, while GPO Station has a single underground level, in order reduce the maximum gradient for trains from 3.5% to 3.0%. Rail tracks are 9.7m below street level at GPO Station, and 8.7m below street level at Anarkali Station. Underground stations feature automated doors between platforms and trains. Public areas of the station are air conditioned during warm months. Elevated stations feature natural ventilation throughout the platforms, with localised air conditioning in public areas of the ticket-hall level.


Rolling stock

Orange Line trains are each composed of five wagons manufactured by China's
CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd. is one of the electric locomotive manufacturers in China. It is one of the subsidiaries of CRRC. History Predecessor Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Works was founded in 1936. CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., ...
, and automated and driverless. A standard Chinese "Type B" train-set consisting of 5 cars with 4 doors each used, that has a stainless steel body and illuminated by
LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...
lighting. Each car has a nominal capacity of 200 seated and standing passengers at an average density of 5 persons per square metre with 20% of passengers seated and 80% standing. A total of 27 trains with 135 cars have been ordered for the system, at a cost of $1 billion. A total of 54 trains are expected to be in service by 2025. The trains powered by a 750-volt
third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...
.


Track

The Orange Line's tracks meet China's national standards, and employing jointless track circuits. Mainline track is capable of supporting 60 kg/m, while track in the depot and storage yards is capable of supporting 50 kg/m. Track was laid upon a monolithic concrete track bed, with crossovers located between every 2 to 3 stations. Double turnover tracks are used at each terminus for turnaround. Track is
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
at 1435mm. Fasteners between tracks are elastic.


Depot

A depot was constructed at the northeast portion of the line, directly east of the Lahore Ring Road, while a stabling yard was constructed at the line's southern terminus at Ali Town. The depot is also the site of the Orange Line's central control centre. The depot and stabling yard respectively required 0.56 and 0.49 kilometres of track.


Alignment

The line spans . of the line is underground, while transition zones between underground and elevated portions covers . The remaining track is elevated. The maximum gradient for the track's main-line is 3.0%, while the minimum turning radius on the mainline is 250 metres. The alignment roughly parallels several of Lahore's major thoroughfares, including the
Grand Trunk Road Grand Trunk Road (formerly known as Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sadak, and Long Walk) is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years it has linked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. It r ...
, McLeod Road, Lake Road, Multan Road and Raiwind Road. The Orange Line connects several important nodes in Lahore, including the Shalamar Gardens, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore's main train station, Chauburji Square, and Ali Town.


Route

From Orange Line's northeastern terminus at Dera Gujran, the track is elevated and runs in the median of the GT Road until Shalamar Station. From Dera Gujran Station in northeast Lahore, the route travels 5.5 kilometres westward with stations at Islam Park, Salamatpura, Mahmood Booti, Pakistan Mint, and Shalamar Gardens. The track does not run in the GT Road's median near Shalamar Station - it instead turns and travels along the southern edge of the GT Road in order to bypass the garden in order to prevent damage to mature trees there. Traveling west from Shalamar Station, the track returns to the median of GT Road, with stops at Baghbanpura, University of Engineering and Technology, and Sultanpura. From Sultanpura, the line then travel towards Lahore's central Junction Railway Station. From there, it travels southwest along McLeod road towards Lakshmi Chowk Station. The total distance from Sultanpura to Lakshmi Chowk is 2.5 km. Leaving Lakshmi Chowk, the line travels southwest along McLeod Road, and descends into the 1.15 km underground portion that leads to the first underground station in the system, the GPO Station. GPO Station is located at the intersection of The Mall and McLeod Road, in front of Lahore's
General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific ...
(GPO) and the
Lahore High Court The Lahore High Court () is a provincial court house based in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. It was established as a high court on 21 March 1882. The Lahore High Court has jurisdiction over the province of Punjab. The High Court's principal seat is ...
. From GPO Station, the line continues from McLeod Road and travels under Allah Baksh Road before turning south where the second underground station, Anarkali, is located. Connections from the Orange Line to the Lahore Metrobus will be available via an underground walkway in future. From Anarkali Station, the route continues under Jain Mandir and Lytton Road. It then emerges along Lake Road and again travels above ground towards Chauburji Station. From Chauburji the line continues 4.5 km towards the southwest, along the median of Multan Road. Elevated stations are located at Gulshan-e-Ravi, Samanabad, Bund Road, Salahudin Road, and Khatam-e-Nabuwat. From Khatam-e-Nabuwat, the line shifts from Multan Road's median and travels along the road's southern/eastern side with a stop at Sabzazar Station. The line continues along Multan Road's edge until Awan Road Station, after which it reverts to Multan Road's median. Leaving Awan Road Station, the line continues to travel southwest along Multan Road until it reaches Wahdat Road Station, which lies 2.85 km to the southwest of Sabzazar Station. The line 5.2 kilometres along Multan and Raiwind Roads, with stops at Hanjarwal Station, Canal View, Thokar Niaz Baig, before terminating at Ali Town.


Connections

The Orange line connects to the Lahore Metrobus from Anarkali Station of the Orange Line, to MAO College Station of the Metrobus. The line connects to the Lahore Railway Station via a
moving walkway A moving walkway – also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, travolator, or travelator – is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane, over a short to medium distance. T ...
to the Orange Line's Railway Station.


Operations

The Orange Line is operated by a joint venture of Guangzhou Metro Group,
Norinco China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, doing business internationally as Norinco Group (an abbreviation of "North Industries Corporation"), and known within China as China Ordnance Industries Group Corporation Limited (), is a Chinese ...
International and Daewoo Express for the first 8 years after the project's completion. Infrastructure for the line has an expected life span of approximately 100 years with routine maintenance. The official in charge is Sibtain Halim.


Projected ridership

The system is designed to handle 30,000 passengers per hour. The Orange Line initially carried 5,000 passengers per day, with ridership of 5000 passengers per day three years after commencement of service. The system is designed to operate with a minimum headway of two minutes. It is expected that the station will serve 520 passengers per hour in the Orange Line's first year of operations - a figure which is expected to rise to 550 by 2025. The system's busiest station is projected to Anarkali Station with an estimated 450 daily trips in the first year of operations, rising to 110,000 trips in 2025. Lakshmi Chowk is expected to be the second busiest station in the first year of operations with 23,200 trips, and 41,500 in 2025. Lahore Junction Railway Station is expected to be the third busiest station within the line's first year of operation with 17,500 trips, rising to 4400 in 2025.


Speed

The maximum speed of the trains is 80 km/h (50 mph). Riders will be served by 26 stations, two of which will be underground stations. The total ride time from one end of the system to the other is estimated to be 45 minutes, compared to the current commute time of more than 1 hour.


Hours of operation

The Orange Line is operational for 15 hours 45 minutes per day, between 06:15 and 22:00.


Electric supply

The system required approximately 20 MWs of electricity to power the trains, as well as the system's stations. 80 MWs of electricity have been secured for the project's operations from the Lahore Electric Supply Company. The system has a back-up unit in case of power failure, while a third emergency system also available to if both power sources fail. Two high-voltage
electrical substation A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station an ...
s built for the line - one near UET Station, and the other at Khatam-e-Nabuwat Station. The project also included 16 traction substations.


Operation entities

On 25 February 2020, the contract of operation and maintenance of Lahore Metro Orange Line was signed between the Punjab provincial transport authority and a set of firms including
Guangzhou Metro The Guangzhou Metro ( zh, s=广州地铁, labels=no) is the rapid transit system of the city of Guangzhou in the Guangdong Province of China. It is operated by the state-owned Guangzhou Metro Corporation and was the fourth metro system to be b ...
, NORINCO International and Daewoo Express.


Finance

The 27-kilometre metro train is expected to cost 22.51 billion Rupees ($1.65 Bn), out of which 48% of funds 14.47 billion Rupees($800 million) coming from the
Federal Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, cons ...
, the rest 52% is financed through
soft loan A soft loan is a loan with a below-market rate of interest. This is also known as ''soft financing''. Sometimes, soft loans provide other concessions to borrowers, such as long repayment periods or interest holidays. Soft loans are usually provi ...
s by the
Government of China The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's congresses. ...
. Though the project is frequently mentioned as a part of the wider China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the project is financed separately from CPEC, and is being undertaken by the Government of Punjab. These loans will be paid back by Punjab Government in installments over a 20-year period. In November 2016, the Punjab Provincial Development Working Party approved an additional 391 million rupees towards construction of the Orange Line. In January 2017, the Government of Punjab was awarded 20 billion rupees' worth of tax exemptions to help control costs for the project. Also in January 2017, the Lahore Development Authority noted that it would require an additional 2 billion rupees in order to better integrate the Orange Line with the Lahore Metrobus where they interchange. The cost of land acquisition for the Orange line is Rs. 13.80 billion and is additional to the above cost and is being borne by the Government of Punjab. Fare of Orange Line is Rs. 25-45 per trip per person depending on travel distance, while Rs.25 for travel up to 4km, Rs.30 for travel up to 8 km, Rs. 35 for travel up to 12 km, Rs.40 for travel up to 16 km and Rs.45 for travel up to the terminus station.


Criticism

The project has been subject to criticism regarding transparency, while
environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
groups have been critical of the environmental sustainability of the project. The
Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...
was reported to have offered to finance a comparable underground transit system at a lower cost of borrowing, but with longer construction times and higher overall cost. Various people and organizations have raised concerns that the Lahore Metro Orange Line might be a possible threat to heritage sites in this historic city. On 19 August 2016, the Lahore High Court ordered the cessation of construction works located within 200 feet of 11 historical sites. After 22 months, construction work resumed following a judgment from the
Supreme Court of Pakistan The Supreme Court of Pakistan (; ''Adālat-e-Uzma Pākistān'') is the apex court in the Judiciary of Pakistan, judicial hierarchy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Established in accordance witPart VIIof the Constitution of Pakistan, it h ...
in favour of the metro. After the election, work on the metro slowed down because a minister of the Government of Punjab termed it a
White elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, ...
and showed reluctance to complete it. The 2019-2020 budget of Punjab has allocated a low amount of funds for the project which will slow the pace of development of the metro. As per a report, over 100 on-site deaths and injuries were reported during the construction of the Orange Line due to lack of occupational health and safety standards.


See also

* Lahore Metro Bus *
Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metrobus The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metrobus is a bus rapid transit system operating in the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area of Pakistan. It consists of four routes, namely the Red, Orange, Blue, and Green Lines. The Red and Orange Lines have d ...
* Multan Metrobus *
Karachi Circular Railway Karachi Circular Railway (abbreviated as KCR) (, Sindhi language, Sindhi: ڪراچي سرڪيولر ريلوي) is a partially active regional public transport, public transit system in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan, which serves the Karachi metropo ...
*
Pakistan Railways Pakistan Railways is the state-owned railway operator in Pakistan. Founded in 1861 as the North Western State Railway and headquartered in Lahore, it owns of operational track across Pakistan, stretching from Peshawar to Karachi, offering bot ...
* Transport in Pakistan * Peshawar BRT


References

{{Public transport in Lahore China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Lahore Metro lines Railway lines opened in 2020 2020 establishments in Pakistan