The train has been designed for the 25.58 km Orange Line Metro in Lahore
The first of 27 trains designed for the Orange Line Metro in Lahore rolled off the production line in central China’s Hunan province on Monday.
The train, with five coaches, an energy-saving air-conditioning system and systems configured to handle unstable voltage, has been produced by CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co, Ltd. The train has been designed for the 25.58 km Orange Line Metro in Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore.
The scope of civil works on the Orange Line project involves the construction of a 27.1 kilometre metro train corridor, including 25.4km of elevated U-shaped viaducts and 1.72km underground sections, 24 elevated and two underground stations, depots, stabling yards, etc.
The Orange Line Metro design combines the national flower of Pakistan and the shape of the dome of the Badshahi Mosque while heat-resistant bogies increase durability, said an engineer of the company.
The designed maximum operational speed of the train is expected to be around 80km per hour. The train is expected to be delivered to the government metro bus authorities by the end of 2017.
As for the financing of the Orange-Line Metro project is concerned, a major chunk, Rs150 billion of the Rs165 billion project, will be provided by the Chinese government to Punjab under a soft-loan agreement, outside the financial realm of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
In May 2016, the first tranche of the payment totalling around Rs33 billion was released by The Exim Bank of China.
Earlier in April, The Supreme Court accepted a petition, filed by Kamil Khan Mumtaz, regarding damage caused to heritage sites due to construction of the Orange-Line train. However, SC asked the Punjab government to file a comprehensive report to the court, detailing measures it would take to address the petitioner’s and civil society’s concerns over the matter.