Paris readies for a new Metro network as underpasses, signal-free corridors captivate the elite in Pakistan
Business
Our policy-makers aren’t ready to accept that cars aren’t a solution and people should be the focus
LAHORE (Raja Arsalan Khan) – Pakistan remains fascinated with underpasses and signal-free corridors as the cities around the country are choked by cars while ordinary citizens – who form an overwhelming majority – spends hours on roads riding chingchis – the three-wheeler noise-making machines – and other obsolete modes of transport.
Our urban centres are reaching a stage to become unliveable. You can’t walk safely or cross roads and are unable to send your children to schools without accompanying them. The pollution level is so high that respiratory diseases have become normal feature of life.
At the same time, people are spending a huge chunk of their income on daily transportation costs when there is no hope of wage hikes insight amid soaring prices pushing and sustaining inflation to the record-high levels.
Now just add the rent they pay for their homes – another ignored aspect of the ill-planned urbanisation in the absence of affordable housing – and the utility bills – power, gas and water – each month with skyrocketing energy tariffs. No doubt the cost-of-living crisis is a matter of do or die for them.
Read more: Skyrocketing transportation cost means people need mass transit system even more
Coming back to the transport system, Paris – the city of love which attracts the highest number of tourists from around the globe annually, also making it the most visited city – is working on a whole new Metro network as we are busy in chest beating for spending billions to facilitate the affluent car owners.
The 200-kilometre long Grand Paris Express system will add four lines and 68 stations to the existing network of the Paris Metro, built in the 1900s and now carrying nearly four million passengers every day.
But why spending so much money when Paris already has 800-kilometre system encompassing 16 central city metro lines with 308 stations and five Réseau Express Régional, or RER, commuter rail lines for the surrounding suburbs?
Because it cannot cope with the current needs and the government focus is on the people as well as keeping Paris a worldwide attraction, a symbol of French pride, not just a collection of concrete structures and vehicles.
The Grand Paris Express will chiefly connect suburban towns without passing through the densely populated city of Paris – adding outer rings to an underground map of Paris that has, until now, been made of 14 lines that only reach out from the center like spokes.
With construction starting in 2016, the French government says it is the biggest civilian infrastructure project in Europe.
Meanwhile, the Paris Metro was among world’s first such ventures, coinciding with the Summer Olympics 1900. Now, the city is adding another jewel Grand Paris Express with 2024 Olympics just round the corner.
The question remains: When will Pakistan start realising that mass transit system is a human right and basic need for cities, which is also vital to address the air pollution and climate change issues?
We have already wasted years after halting the process which began in Lahore in 2012 with Metro Bus (Green Line) after the powerful interest groups couldn’t digest the Orange Line.
