The Punjab government has finalised proposals for a wide-ranging public transport expansion in the upcoming financial year 2026-27, with recommendations submitted for an allocation of over Rs. 200 billion for transport-related projects across the province. The budget proposals, prepared under the Maryam Nawaz-led provincial government, reflect a significant scaling up of electric and mass transit investment starting from July 2026.
The centrepiece of the plan is the addition of 2,000 electric buses to Punjab’s public transport fleet during the next financial year, with the number of electric buses across major cities in the province expected to increase considerably as part of a broader public transport expansion strategy. Alongside the bus fleet expansion, the government has included two welfare-oriented transport schemes in the proposals, covering the distribution of 50,000 motorcycles to students and the provision of 5,000 electric taxis to unemployed youth. These schemes are designed to address both daily mobility needs for students who lack affordable transport access and income generation opportunities for young people without formal employment, placing them squarely within the provincial government’s broader youth economic agenda.
On the infrastructure side, the Lahore-Rawalpindi fast train project has been formally included among the top infrastructure priorities for the coming financial year, signalling the government’s intent to progress a corridor that has been discussed at various planning levels for several years. Punjab also plans to upgrade eight railway tracks during the same period as part of a wider modernisation of existing rail infrastructure across the province. At the urban transit level, the government intends to operationalise the Autonomous Rail Transit corridor from Kalma Chowk to Istanbul Chowk in Lahore during the upcoming financial year, a project that forms part of Lahore’s longer-term plan to build out dedicated transit lanes that move independently of regular road traffic. Taken together, these proposals represent one of the more substantive single-year transport investment packages the province has put forward, spanning electric buses, two-wheelers, rail, and urban transit infrastructure under a unified budget push.
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