First electric railway transportation project under China Pakistan Economic Corridor, Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT), has successfully completed its two years of operation on October 25th, putting healthy impacts on local transportation and environment protection in the provincial metropolis. It was inaugurated on October 25, 2020 with a great fanfare.
OLMT is Pakistan’s first urban railway system as well as the first implemented large-scale public infrastructure project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor under “Belt & Road Initiative”.
During two years of its operation, travel efficiency has been greatly improved. The travel time of the entire route has been reduced from 2.5 hours to only 45 minutes.
In addition, the operation of the orange line has also reduced the use of cars within the city, reduced emission of gases, improved environmental protection, and promoted the green and sustainable development of the city. Orange Line Metro is driven by electricity to achieve zero pollution and zero emission. It is estimated that the annual fuel emission of gases will be reduced by 30,000 tons.
With the successful operation of the Orange Line project, Pakistan now owns the most advanced urban rail transit system in South Asia. The corridor opened up the economic artery of Lahore that runs through the entire city, fully optimizing the city’s development structure. More than 12 million people are able to enjoy this innovative, efficient, and safe transportation service.
The Orange Line project produced around 7,000 jobs for local engineers, construction workers, and other laborers during the construction phase. It has created more than 1,300 jobs in the local market after its operation. More than 2000 jobs were created in various related services, like ticketing, security, cleaning, etc.
In order to promote and develop Pakistan’s infrastructure construction industry, while using Chinese technology and Chinese standards, all civil engineering works were carried out by local civil construction companies. During the construction process, China provided rail transit engineering construction technologies, standards and experiences, accumulated by China over the years, to fully build and improve Pakistan’s modern rail transit engineering design and construction capabilities.
After the inauguration of Orange Line Project, O&M JV spared no effort in combining Chinese and international standards with local practice to standardize the operations and maintenance. Therefore, it prepared 60 operation manuals, 360 professional training materials, 560 operation regulations and 670 training videos, and has built a customized, standardized and comprehensive operation system of modern metro rail transit for the local industry.
Chinese experts, along with 1,300 Pakistani engineers and technicians kept on performing duties. All local technicians were guided to learn technical knowledge and experiences, follow the practice and standards originated from China.
The operation and maintenance of Orange Line adopts the principle of localization. A large number of consumables, tools, equipment and services are procured from the local market, which has promoted the development of local industry and a number of local small and medium-sized enterprises.
