LTC to operate city parking lots

LAHORE, Feb 21: The Punjab government has entrusted the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) with the task of taking over the entire parking lots in the city and operating them under its regulations in order to streamline the parking issues.

“In near future we will take control of all parking lots being run currently by the City District Government of Lahore, towns, LDA, Wasa, Tepa or any other provincial department of the Punjab government,” Lahore Transport Company Chairman and Adviser to Chief Minister Khwaja Ahmad Hassan said while speaking at a meeting of LTC Board of Directors here on Tuesday.

He said the LTC management had also decided to set up a separate wing to supervise new parking system in Lahore.

He said as many as 350 new buses of international standard were expected to reach Lahore from China by April 15 and 100 of them would be available in the city within the next 10 days. “The Punjab government is also making arrangements for ensuring availability of standardised buses for other mega cities including Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur and Multan very soon.”

He directed the LTC enforcement wing to ensure implementation of safety standards in public transport by involving all stakeholders, particularly the transport department. He said the town municipal administrations and traffic police had also been advised to jointly launch an operation against substandard CNG cylinders installed in public transport.

The LTC chairman said effective measures would be taken to ply the buses in accordance with the standards of safety, maintenance and cleanliness. “It is mandatory for enforcement staff of LTC to regulate urban transport system effectively. The enforcement staff will take concrete measures to regulate the public transport in accordance with law, ethics and standards. It is also need of the hour to improve behaviour of the bus staff with passengers.”

Mr Hassan said work on the phase-II of Bus Rapid Transit project would be launched soon from Chungi Amar Sidhu to Kalma Chowk. “The BRT project will facilitate about 150,000 passengers with two dedicated bus lanes,” he said.

The meeting was also attended by LTC Vice-Chairman Mehr Ishtiaq, BoD members including Yawar Irfan, Ahsan Chughtai, Secretary (Transport) Captain (retd) Muhammad Yousaf, LTC CEO Haider Lateef, general managers Asad Gillani, Adnan Mudassar, Kamran Khan and Amjad Husain and Deputy Secretary (Chief Minister Secretariat) Fawad Akram.