The PTI government plan suffered a set back on Wednesday when the Lahore High Court extended the stay on the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development (RUDA) project.
A bench of the LHC dismissed the plea of the government seeking withdrawal of its injunction staying the work on the project.
The bench extended the stay order until next hearing with a direction to ensure that no work on the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development project is carried out in violation of its restraining order nor anyone is evicted.
The LHC had stayed the work on the project in January 2021.
The court stopped the government from acquiring land for the project and issued notices to the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) and Lahore Development Authority (LDA).
The bench observed that the procedure adopted to acquire land for the Orange Line Metro Train project proved disastrous, whereas, an environmental survey was not conducted for the project so far.
The bench ruled that the government could not acquire land for the project until a survey is conducted to ascertain its environmental impacts. It directed authorities concerned to appoint an international consultant to review the environmental impacts of the multi-billion project.
