Govt plea to vacate stay on Ravi Urban River project rejected

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday dismissed a plea of the government seeking to withdraw its injunction staying the work on the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development project.

A bench of the LHC extended the stay order until next hearing with a direction for a government lawyer to ensure that no work on the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development project is carried out in violation of its restraining order or nor anyone is evicted.

In January 2021, the LHC had stayed the work on the project.

The court stopped the government from acquiring land for the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development project and issued notices to the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) and Lahore Development Authority (LDA).

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The bench maintained that the procedure adopted to acquire land for the Orange Line Metro Train project became disastrous, whereas, an environmental survey was not conducted for the project so far.

The court ruled that the government could not acquire land for the project until a survey is conducted to ascertain its environmental impacts. The court directed concerned authorities to appoint an international consultant to review the environmental impacts of the multi-billion project.