The future of Pakistan’s first modern metro system is in doubt after a court banned construction of train tracks and stations near heritage sites in Lahore, a historic city that boasts an array of important Mughal-era buildings.
The Lahore high court said building work could not take place within 200ft (60 metres) of 11 protected sites, which include a UN world heritage site as well as numerous tombs and shrines.
Heritage campaigners launched a legal bid to block work on the Orange line project in January after learning that concrete elevated tracks would swoop past the 17th-century Shalimar Gardens, spoil views of the four-towered Chauburji gatehouse and carve off the front lawn and porch of the Raj-era General Post Office.
Even if the court’s decision is overturned on appeal, it is a blow to the ruling faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) led by the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, which had hoped to complete work on the flagship project in time for its re-election bid, likely to happen in 2018.
The government is also keen to prove to China that it is able to execute big projects. Beijing is financing the Orange line, reportedly worth more than $1bn, as part of spate of big-ticket infrastructure investments that Pakistan hopes will rejuvenate its stalled economy.
So far the government of Punjab, the province of which Lahore is the capital, has staunchly resisted all opposition to the scheme. Last year the province’s director of archaeology in Punjab was replaced after he refused to give permission for key aspects.
Atiq Ahmed, an urban designer involved in the campaign against the Orange line, said the project should be built in underground tunnels to limit the impact on both historic buildings and communities threatened with eviction.
“There is this myth that we are some sort of Dubai and all of this could be built overnight,” he said.
Punjab’s chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, who is the prime minister’s brother, succeeded in rapidly constructing a “metrobus” project in Lahore in time for the 2013 elections by erecting a route of concrete flyovers to make a dedicated busway.
The 17-mile (27km) Orange line would be the most advanced mass transit system in Pakistan. But while the prospect of gleaming new infrastructure thrills Punjab’s chief minister, it has appalled conservationists.
In November, Unesco said the scheme could do “irreversible damage” to the Shalimar Gardens, a designated world heritage site.
