LAHORE: Work on turning Lahore yellow again has formally begun. A high-level planning meeting on Basant arrangements was held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Additional Managing Director Rao Tasleem Akhtar, where officials reviewed the decoration of major city roads and other festival-related preparations in detail.
According to an official statement issued after the meeting, it was attended by Director Finance Ahmed Saeed Manj, representatives of various advertising agencies, and Advertising Association representatives Muhammad Bilal and Aiyan Lone. Rao Tasleem Akhtar serves as Additional Managing Director at the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) Lahore, the agency responsible for the city’s parks, green belts and public-space beautification.
Addressing the meeting, Rao Tasleem Akhtar said that Lahore is the cultural hub of the country and that Basant will be organised as a grand event of international standards.
He said major roads and thoroughfares across the city would be beautifully and attractively decorated for the occasion. To ensure effective execution of the decoration and beautification work, he added, the roads would be divided into different categories — a tiering approach that allows resources and design themes to be allocated according to a corridor’s visibility, traffic volume and civic importance rather than treating every road identically.
The meeting also functioned as a consultation. Advertising Association representatives Muhammad Bilal and Aiyan Lone put forward various suggestions to further improve the arrangements for Basant.
Rao Tasleem Akhtar said close coordination and a comprehensive strategy would be adopted in collaboration with all relevant institutions and advertising agencies to make the Basant celebrations a memorable event of international standards.
The early involvement of advertising agencies is significant. Signage, lighting installations, sponsored gateways and brand activations along major arteries are typically executed by private agencies, and locking in categories and specifications six months out gives both the authority and the industry a workable production timeline.
The planning follows the festival’s return to Lahore earlier this year after an extended prohibition. The Punjab government revived Basant following a ban imposed in 2007 over rising fatalities and injuries — particularly among motorcyclists — caused by kite strings coated with glass, metallic particles and chemicals, as well as celebratory gunfire.
Dates for the next edition are already public. Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced on August 18 that a three-day Basant festival will be held in Lahore from March 12 to 14, 2027. In a post on X, she said Lahore would once again come alive with “colour, culture, festivity, music, energy and legendary hospitality,” and invited overseas Pakistanis and international visitors to attend.
On the supply side, the District Administration has proposed five designated zones across the city where kite string — locally known as manjha or dor — would be manufactured under strict government supervision, The Lahore Times reported last month.
The sites under consideration are the Manawan Sports Complex, LDA City Nishtar, Raiwind Market, Rakh Tehra in Cantt, and the area near Sagian Bridge on the River Ravi. Within these zones, authorities plan to establish between 500 and 600 individual points for string preparation ahead of the festival, with monitoring teams tasked to ensure no banned or chemically treated thread enters the process. Only government-approved string would be permitted for sale and use during Basant.
The proposal remains under review, and officials have not yet confirmed final locations, timelines or the regulatory framework for approving manjha manufacturers.
The clearest lesson from the last festival is a scheduling one. During Basant 2026, manufacturers were given only about a month to produce kites, string and related material — a compressed window that officials say contributed directly to supply shortfalls and made price control difficult as demand outran available stock.
To avoid a repeat, the District Administration is considering allocating four to five months of lead time before Basant 2027, giving suppliers room to build adequate stocks of kites, string and spools while authorities monitor pricing.
The trade is pushing in the same direction. At a press conference in Allama Iqbal Town, District Kite Flying Association Chairman Khawaja Nadeem Saeed Wain called for licences to be reissued early, arguing manufacturing should be permitted for four to five months from September.
Safety rules remain the backbone of the exercise. Under the SOPs issued for the festival, only cotton string is permitted, with metallic, chemical and glass-coated varieties banned outright and violations carrying fines, confiscation of stock and possible criminal cases. Guidelines circulated for 2027 also restrict kite flying to secure rooftops with boundary walls of at least three and a half feet, and require adult supervision of children.
With roughly six months to go, attention now shifts to three pending decisions: notification of the final production zones and licensing window, finalisation of decoration contracts with advertising agencies, and the road-categorisation notification. Together they will determine whether Basant 2027 lands as the larger, better-organised event officials are promising.
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