Lahore selects Dar Al-Handasah for Master Plan 2050

Lahore Master Plan 2050 has taken a step forward, with the appointment of Lebanese consultancy Dar Al-Handasah to help design the infrastructure plan.

Dar Al-Handasah is a global multidisciplinary advisory firm specialised in engineering, architecture, planning and project management. The firm began as a four-man venture in Beirut in 1956, and has since grown into a global operation with 8,000 professionals spread across nearly 50 offices worldwide.

Having beaten Singapore-based engineering giant Meinhardt and Pakistan-based engineering services firm Nespak, Dar Al-Handasah will now help design Lahore Master Plan 2050 – an infrastructure drive looking to redevelop and revamp Lahore city.

The second largest city in Pakistan by population: Lahore has struggled with rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation in recent years – giving rise to myriad problems such as unplanned building, congestion, encroachment, heavy traffic, pollution, and vast stretches of underdeveloped housing and slums.

Budgeted with $750 million, Lahore Master Plan 2050 is aimed at fixing these issues by developing transport, power supply, road networks and general infrastructure in the city. Lahore is of key economic importance to Pakistan’s maturing economy, and a modern urban landscape is the need of the hour.

The plan was originally due for completion in 2040, although an extra ten years has been added on by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA). Bids were invited last year, and the city authority closely reviewed the technical proposals of all three shortlisted consultancies.

Leveraging its vast pool of expertise and experience with global clients, Dar Al-Handasah will now work with LDA on designs for the ambitious master plan, which will likely feature the latest in city planning and urban mobility.

According to LDA Director-General Ahmed Aziz Tarar, transparency is the top priorirty for the plan, which according to him “will determine the future course of development of the provincial metropolis.”