Delivering Urban Mass Transit—The Case of Lahore, Pakistan

The case of Lahore’s Bus Rapid Transit and Mass Transit investments in this Chapter documents a series of challenges: overlapping roles and responsibilities across a multitude of uncoordinated authorities; proactive opposition to urban developments by civil society groups and opposition political parties; and large-scale untargeted subsidies resulting in unsustainable operational losses. Projects like Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System (LRMTS) involve many conflicting decisions, competing stakeholders, equally appealing alternatives, and booming budgets. Such projects require careful analysis. Multiple lenses—from urban policy, transport policy, and public policy process to public administration theory and public finance—can be employed to analyze these projects. For any such project to be successfully designed and implemented, all stakeholders would have to set aside political and cognitive biases and other narrow interests, prioritize organizational values, and place atop public interest. Finally, any similar project in the region would demand careful mitigation planning, judicious financing schemes, strong historical heritage protection, transparency, and, lastly, a robust in-house capacity to ensure the maintenance of the infrastructure.