The document discusses the LDA's plan for the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project and the Lahore Conservation Society's critique of the plan. Some key points: 1. The LDA is inviting international firms to submit proposals for a project that includes cleaning the Ravi River, developing flood containment areas, river channelization, and a master plan for urban and infrastructure development along the riverfront. 2. The Conservation Society supports cleaning the river but has concerns that the project will result in overdevelopment and environmental damage. Similar past projects have compromised planning and benefited corporations more than local communities. 3. The Society proposes alternative strategies like taxing non-essential consumption to fund social services, promoting organic farming, pedestrian infrastructure

1. Ravi Riverfront
The Lahore Project (TLP)
Monthly Discussion Forum
Dated: 11th Sept. 2013
Kamil Khan Mumtaz
ACriticalReviewonLDA’sPlan,&TLP’sStand

2. The Urban Sector Planning and
Management Services Unit, Pvt. Ltd (the
Urban Unit) is a company of the
Government of Punjab. The Urban Unit,
on behalf of Lahore Development
Authority (LDA), is inviting reputable
international firms (consortium/joint
ventures) to submit Expressions of Interest
(EOI) for the “Ravi Riverfront Urban
Development Project”
River Ravi
Urban Development Project

3. 1. A major cleanup of the Ravi including provisions for
wastewater / sewage treatment.
2. Development of flood containment area and to cater to
different levels of flood scenarios.
3. River channelization for an estimated length of 33 KM.
4. Master plan for riverfront and urban development
including residential, commercial, academic, recreational, mixed
use and light industrial zones.
5. Master plan for all public infrastructure and services
including transport and utility.
6. Establishment of institutional and regulatory frameworks
to govern and manage the new riverfront urban development.
Scope of the Proposed Project

4. Lahore Conservation Society
Position on the Project
This is an amazing project, in both a positive and
negative sense.
Positive, because some aspects are consistent with much
of the deliberations, findings and proposals of the Ravi
River Commission set up by the Lahore High Court
Green Bench, as well as our own deliberations in The
Lahore Project (TLP).
But negative, because in other respects it is another
potential mega-disaster by design!

5. 1. A major cleanup of the Ravi including provisions for wastewater /
sewage treatment.
2. Development of flood containment area and to cater to different
levels of flood scenarios.
3. River channelization for an estimated length of 33 KM
The Good News
• The Conservation Society supports cleaning of the river;
• Using its potential as a key element in the water cycle, (source, supply, treatment and re-
cycling);
• Training and developing the flood plain for water storage lakes, treatment ponds, wetland
ecology and flood control;
• Creating a large nature reserve and recreational facility; and
• Developing a rich resource for food and timber.

6. This is just one more in the series of opportunistic development projects that have
“over the years” … resulted in the viability of various appropriate planning initiatives
“being compromised in the long run.”
4. Master plan for riverfront and urban development including
residential, commercial, academic, recreational, mixed use and light
industrial zones.
5. Master plan for all public infrastructure and services including
transport and utility.
6. Establishment of institutional and regulatory frameworks to govern
and manage the new riverfront urban development.
The Bad News

7. The standard operating procedure is that global finance capital, in the
form of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) or corporate
business investors, identify a lucrative investment opportunity (usually
public and environmental assets such as forest reserve, ocean coast,
railways, canals, village commons (shamlaat), or historic town.
They put together a “project” which includes public/sovereign
guarantees for payments of investor‟s profits. The poisonous pill is
then sugar-coated with mouth-watering catch-phrases and „sold‟ to
the government and the public in attractive packaging including
sustainability, poverty alleviation, income generation, foreign
investment, progress, development, economic growth, public/private
partnership and the like.
These mega-projects produce mega-bucks for consultants,
contractors, financiers and corporate business, but result in
mega-disasters for the environment and the effected
populations.
As Pakistan‟s leading urban
planner Arif Hassan has said,
There is no longer any
such thing as “Planning”,
we only have “projects”.

8. Canal widening
project
was „sold‟ under the cover of reduction
of traffic congestion and pollution, but
actually resulted in cutting of hundreds
of trees, increase in traffic volumes with
its concomitant pollution and the
destruction of a unique environmental
asset of the city, making what was left of
it inaccessible to the citizens;

9. Rapid Bus Transport
project
was „sold‟ under the cover of public
transport, but actually resulted in a mega-
construction of an aerial motorway, that
divided well integrated neighborhoods,
destroyed the view of numerous historic
buildings, deprived social infrastructure
sectors like health and education of
urgently needed funds.
The city already had a road network with adequate capacity.
It needed better traffic management and replacement of
private motor vehicles with buses. It got an aerial motorway
instead. The cost of which could have bought enough buses
to meet the needs of not only the city but of the entire
province;

10. Walled City Project
was „sold‟ under the cover of poverty
alleviation, income generation, sustainable
development and heritage conservation,
but has actually resulted in inflated
property values, a land grab mafia,
depopulation, and loss of culturally
valuable properties, which are being
replaced by warehouses, plazas, boutique
hotels and up-market catering
establishments;

11. Lahore Cantonment
Housing Society
„sold‟ as a welfare scheme for retired army
officers, has actually morphed into the
Defense Housing Authority that has
dispensed with the fig leaf of serving any
defense needs, and gone way beyond the
Cantonment Area into unabashed real
estate development that has transformed
huge chunks of green agricultural land
use into high-end urban development, in
violation of all „master planning‟
provisions for the city; displacing rural
populations and cordoning off entire
village settlements that have refused to
abandon their homes;

12. Our (TLP) studies have shown conclusively that
there is no need to expand the urban area of Lahore.
There is more than enough space and invested
infrastructure capacity in the existing developed urban area
to accommodate the projected doubling of the population
over the next 25 years!

13. The realities of economic life are that most of the wealth
of the region (62%) is accumulated in the city. But instead
of a better quality of life for most of the citizens this has
produced:
• Acute income disparity (80% of households below
poverty level i.e. $2 per person per day);
• High unemployment (>27% of working population,
99% of female resident population);
• Environmental degradation;
• Conversion of green, agricultural and other „open‟
land into high-end urban developments;

14. Majority of developed urban land (90%)
comprises low-density (less than 150
persons per hectare), for the rich minority
(42% of the population), while the poor (58
% of the population) are crammed into a
tiny proportion of the urban area (10%), at
densities over a thousand persons per
hectare.

15. To “boost the economic life” of the people
we do not need “state-of-art urban
development projects providing housing
units … buildings and modern commercial
centers”.
We need a radical shift in our planning
strategies and priorities including the
following:

16. Taxation of non-essential consumption and
investment of revenues in social infrastructure.
This will:
-reduce income disparities;
-provide better quality of life; and
-reduce unemployment;
•Organic farming and artisanal manufacture.
This will:
-reduce unemployment;
-improve balance of payments;
-produce healthier food;
-reduce of environmental degradation;
-result in 100% recycling; and
-zero waste
•Pedestrian circulation. This will:
-Reduce motor vehicle traffic;
-Reduce traffic accidents;
-Reduce noise and air pollution;
-Reduce dependence on non-renewable energy;
-Save foreign exchange;
-Permit higher densities;
-Provide space for social infrastructure including
recreation;
-Provide for better community integration;
•Equitable utilization of urban resources
including land and invested infrastructure. This
will:
-Rationalize urban densities;
-create space for social infrastructure (education, health,
recreation etc.) in high density areas; and
-optimize utilization of surplus capacity in low-density
areas;
•Control of urban expansion. This will:
-Conserve green areas including agriculture, forests and
water bodies;
-Reduce utility infrastructure costs;
Strategies & Proposals
(From The Lahore Project Team)