(CONFIDENTIAL)

SUB: 2050 Lahore Master Plan - Key note on Project Management.

1. Please find attached a confidential note on project management aspects of the 2050 Lahore
Master Plan under execution through Lahore Development Authority.

2. Having been engaged as a reviewer of transport sector of the Master Plan, delivery of
comments on final master plan within due time frame stand reported. This particular note
specifically deals with management issues, arisen during the execution of the project that
has significantly impacted the overall quality of project outcome/s. I apologise for being too
critical on various aspects, but it is a hard fact that most of project failures have emerged as a
result of inexperience and casual approach of the department itself.

3. Having been part and parcel of this process through past five decades, I feel that over the
years, key and foremost function of ‘planning’ is not being delivered in its true context. Since
the preparation of 1980 Structure Plan of the city and execution of universally recognised
Walled City infrastructure and services improvement programme, overall delivery of
planning process has seriously declined. All the subsequently prepared city master plans;
including NESPAK led efforts proved nothing beyond follow up of business-as-usual
approach. Main reason is the in-application of planning process and absence of having an
effective planning team. With the exception of a couple of urban planners, LDA and for that
matter Metropolitan Planning Section of LDA, does not possess essentially required skilled
professionals like urban economists, utility engineers, sociologists, survey specialists,
research analysists, planning studios and essentially required facilities and tools to drive the
planning and urban research activity. Resultantly LDA could hardly come up with the
development of only two housing schemes in the public sector during the past four decades.
If LDA have distanced itself from its heritage and planning practice, faltering outcomes from
an occasional exercise of master plan project, are inevitable and LDA has to face them, unless
improving upon its planning mechanism in true sense.

4. Most of the project management failures in case of 2050 Lahore Master Plan accrued on
account of inexperience and least knowledge of the department for the procurement of
international consultancy assignments. This is a common problem of the public agencies and
most appropriate option is to outsource the procurement process for its safe handling
through relevant specialities instead of facing delivery snags as in case of Master Plan
exercise.

5. Submitted for appropriate actions for judicious completion of Master Planning exercise. Best
regards.

Sd
Khushal Khan
Transport Planning Specialist
29th September, 2023
Chief Metropolitan Planner
 Lahore Development Authority

(CONFIDENTIAL)

Lahore Master Plan 2050- Key note on Project Management.

1. Lahore Development Authority has initiated the task of preparing the Master Plan for Lahore
Division. Project consultancy for this purpose was assigned to a joint venture (JV) of
international and local consultants including “Dar Consult” from Kingdom of Bahrain and
“Asian Consultants”, based in Lahore. Agreement for the consultancy was signed on 2 nd
February 2021 for completing the assignment within 18 months. Final report for the project
was submitted during March/ April 2023, late by 8 months. Since the quantum and quality of
consultant’s work is lacking in various sectors, project completion is delayed significantly.

2. Having signed the contract and the work award, JV mobilised number of professional teams,
to conduct the work program for various sectors of the study. To perform transport sector
activities, services of Mr Hicham as nominated in the project agreement, were never
provided. Instead, the nomination of Mr Saeed Shohani was suggested to replace Dr Hicham,
which was never approved by LDA till the submission of final report. Therefore, transport
sector work, performed by Mr Saeed Shohani of Dar Consult and Mr. Mursaleen from Asians,
against the positions of international and local specialists respectively, cannot be accepted
being non-commensurate with the provisions of the agreement.

3. Though local and international partners of the JV are signatory of the contract agreement
signed between LDA and JV, input schedule of local specialists and their specialities are not
made part of the agreement nor being governed through this agreement. Therefore, LDA
cannot make any payments to JV, without specifying the positions and input duration of local
staff as part of the agreement.

4. Since the start of the project, JV has submitted five reports relevant to various stages of the
study including final report covering Master Plan of Lahore Division and Master Plans of four
district towns and forty-five other urban settlements falling under the jurisdiction of the
Division.

5. Authorised through a contract with LDA, to review transport sector work of the JV,
undersigned have provided services over a period of more than one year and has offered
detailed comments on all stages of the study.

6. Transport sector team, comprising of Mr. Saeed Shohani; an expatriate and Mr Mursaleen
belonging to local consultant Asians, though not officially approved, has compiled the
transport sector output. The transport sector team, fielded to launch the study not only
failed to win the confidence of the client, team, also lacked competence and experience to
handle extremely complex and challenging assignment of master planning and demanding
skills to handle extremely difficult and rapidly transforming transport sector.
7. JV presented the study findings through stage reporting including Final Master Plan Report.
Transport sector teamwork was rejected for all stages simply because of poor performance
throughout the study process.

8. Transport sector team performance; with respect to evaluation of transport infrastructure

network, appraisal of travel characteristics and obtainable behaviours, apart from non-
coverage of intercity public transport, rural roads and urban rural connectivity, was found to
be extremely substandard.

9. Team’s work lacked project relevant information and data requirements. Study outputs
suffered in the absence of consultations with crucial stakeholders, inadequate assessment of
transport infrastructure, travel conditions, transport services, and organizational
performance. Team failed to perform on account of their poor understanding towards
linkages between study phasing covering sector assessment, strategy formulation and
conceptualizing master planning proposals. Overall study output for transport sector is
seriously deficient. It is poor in coverage and quality, requiring it for redoing through a
separate team other than the one fielded through JV. Recently submitted comments on Final
Master Plan report may be referred for details.

10. Based on overall poor performance of transport sector team in particular, consultants’
output on transport sector stands rejected. At the earlier stages of the project, during the
submission of Assessment Stage Report, work of the transport sector team was questioned
on account of large-scale omissions and absence of critical analysis on the functioning of
overall road network. LDA being suspicious on the capacity of the transport sector team,
specifically wrote to JV for revisiting Ferozepur Road and Kasur - Depalpur Road to comment
on various cross-sectional details. LDA kept reminding the team during meetings but
consultant never responded on account of the fear of being exposed. LDA is of the firm
opinion that present team of consultant deployed to cover transport sector, is absolutely
unskilled and incompetent to handle sector work as per traditional and global requirements.
Further, the consultant’s denial to revisit questioned road sites and not to report back to the
client, could lead for taking serious action against the JV including delisting for next 5 to 10
years.

11. Transport sector team was further exposed on account of number of deficiencies in the
subsequent reports. In the final Master Plan report, transport team advocated for specific
suggestion for upgrading of existing city road network, through converting all existing streets
into single lane roads. Further, consultant also proposed “two-lanes undivided road” for
bypassing Nankana City. Above proposed statements indicate that from consultants’ point of
view, city road network can be upgraded through converting the city network into single lane
roads and two lanes’ roads are also divisible. In spite of regular reminding and comments,
consultants fail to understand the road classification for urban and rural settings. With such a
level of team expertise, consultant’s work can never be relied upon.

12. Since, the nomination of Mr. Saeed Shohani in place of Dr Hicham Hassan was never
approved by LDA, all work output carried through transport sector team comprising of Mr.
Saeed Shohani and Mursaleen, even otherwise is unlawful, unacceptable and cannot be paid
upon.
13. Urban planning output of JV, w.r.t to Lahore is also deficient on account of (i) thoughtless
follow up of extended urban growth and (ii)non-consideration of the exorbitant
phenomenon of urban sprawl and (iii) complete absence of space allocations for city scale
community functions; of education, health, governance and servicing, that stand missing
from the expanded areas of Lahore, shaped through loosely administered private sector
housing schemes executed during the past three decades. This is a serious oversight on the
part of JV and it carries devastating impacts on urban mobility and city management as a
whole.

14. Selection of sites, for initiating pilot urban regeneration schemes including Thokar Niaz Beg
and Kotha Pind, is too demanding and challenging. Whereas, area is better ripe for initiating
street improvement schemes for Southern Bypass, Extended College Road, and Extended
Mader-e- Millat Road. Whereas, pilot urban regeneration schemes need to be suggested for
previously initiated scheme of Gulberg and areas well within the city centre.

15. Though study TOR suggests for critical review and analysis of urban governance as an
important element of master plan study, but the same stands completely ignored for all
sectors of the master plan project. Leaving aside infrastructure and services sector, JV has
not bothered even to review and analyse urban planning process. Comments on periodic
Master Plans are too general and non-conclusive. Critical analysis of organizations’ capacity
for the delivery of planning process is completely ignored and not made part of the master
plan study.

16. Apart from above, study also suffered on account of weak project management and deficient
controls. LDA was not able to put up a good quality Study Terme of Reference (TOR). Study
TORs, usually demonstrate overall project objectives, suggest to conceptualise development
challenges through conduct of various studies, and require framing of strategies and
expected work plan for a suitable time horizon. To achieve successful study outputs, relevant
expertise is required to be assigned for appropriate time scales. But, in case of Lahore Master
Plan project, relevant expertise and duration of their input was not made part of TOR and
assigning of study staffing was left open at the mercy of the consultants. Additionally, the
numbers and time input of traffic relevant staffing, as stipulated in the consultancy
agreement is far below the work requirements. On the top of above, staffing; committed for
transport sector in the agreement, was never fielded at all. Joint Venture, in fact summarily
failed to assign quality staffing required to cover transport sector work for the Master Plans
of the Division, District Towns of Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Kasur, and Forty-Five
other urban settlements situated in the Lahore Division.

17. Though Asians being part of JV is signatory of the contract agreement, but local staffing; to
be fielded through Asians, was not made part of the agreement. Resultantly, LDA
experienced least control on the quality and time input of local consultants. This is a major
omission on the part of LDA, impacting seriously on the quantum and quality of the output.
Expatriate staff usually delivers their advisory role through marginalised input whereas,
major input comes through local staffing, being well aware of local conditions and their
intimate relations with relevant stakeholders. Ignoring control over the input and quality of
local input is another major cause of poor performance. In case of transport sector,
expatriate member of the team Mr. Saeed could hardly afford short visits, whereas, local
member MR. Mursaleen, being too inexperienced, could hardly perform and manage
 consultations with most important stakeholders including CWD and Punjab Local
Government Department and others.

18. Consultants’ denial to revisit the field for certain clarification sought through the suggestion
of the client, is a blunder on the part of the consultant. It clearly indicates the incapacity of
team to evaluate the performance of available infrastructure and consultant denial to
response the query could lead to delisting of JV partners for future assignments.

19. Transport sector work suffered on account of in sufficient number of expertise and time
input for such a gigantic work to cover Master Planning for the Division, Lahore City, three
other district towns and 45 medium size cities. In fact, it is a combination of three big
assignments covering colossal amount of work. Ideally at; least two or three senior local
transport planners/ traffic engineers with more than 25 to 30 years of experience, along with
supporting staffing, were required to sort out the critical analysis of transport infrastructure
and transport services, performance evaluation of transport sector organizations, and
detailed examination of the elements and structures of current and future transport relevant
developments. Mr. Mursaleen deployed on Asians behalf proved to be utter failure because
of his inability even on minor and basic elements /issues of road statistics, road
classifications, road configurations, and current travel conditions.

20. All the five periodic submissions of transport sector including the final report have been
summarily rejected on account of variety of reasons as stipulated through comments on the
reports. The condition and quality of the JV’s output is extremely poor, it carries many gaps
and is devoid of essentially required stuff, therefore LDA is advised not to bother the JV for
making any further improvements in their submissions. The transport sector part of the
study therefore, needs to be redone afresh. Since the staff employed by the JV is totally
incompetent and unapproved, therefore, sector work needs to be withdrawn from the JV
and reallocated to suitable alternate group of international and local consultants for redoing.

21. In view of the above stated situation LDA is suggested for appropriate action on its part.

Khushal Khan
Transport Planning Specialist
29th September, 2023