Staff Reporter
More people could be evicted over March as the Sindh government scrambles to clear the last five kilometers of the Karachi Circular Railway ahead of an April meeting in Beijing when it will ask China to pay for it under the CPEC. These people will be rehabilitated on railway land, where houses will be built where possible. KCR has not been working for many years and people have built on its tracks. Out of 38km, 33km have been cleared and only five kilometers are left, according to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. He held a meeting with Railways Minister Shaikh Rasheed on Monday when several key decisions were made to get KCR operational. Sheikh Rasheed and the CM formed a committee under the Karachi Commissioner with the DS Railways Karachi to remove people on the route. They have a month to get this done. KCR, a circular railway that provided cheap, easy transport, to key neighbourhoods in Karachi has not been working properly for years. As Karachi’s traffic becomes worse, the government has been pushed by the courts to do something. Pakistan Railways will hand over key assets—its Karachi Urban Transport Company and Right of Way—to the Sindh government so KCR can be revived. It will need money from the CPEC Joint Coordination Committee scheduled to be held in Beijing in April 2020, said an official handout. Murad Ali Shah said that he met CPEC Authority chairman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa in Islamabad and he had had assured that KCR would be implemented. The federal government owns 60% of KUTC and Sindh governed the rest. Once it is handed over Sindh will appoint a consultant to carry forward KCR matters. Shaikh Rasheed told the chief minister that he was handing KUTC over. A committee under Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah and Federal Secretary Railways will work this out within a month. KUTC would have to file an application with the SECP for a change in administration. December 3, 2016: Murad Ali Shad asks the prime minister to have KCR included in the CPEC frame work, issue a sovereign guarantee for its revitalization, hand over the Karachi Urban Transport Company to the Sindh government and the RoW. Prime minister Nawaz Sharif approves the requests and forms a committee but the matter is delayed.
