Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said that encroachments on a five-kilometre-long portion of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) are due to be cleared for the complete revival of an approximately 43-kilometre-long track.
He made the statement while chairing a session regarding the progress of revival plan of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) on Saturday.
“KCR project had been launched in 1964 and it remained functional till 1984 while it was halted in 1999. The Sindh government had taken initiative for the revival of KCR in 2006. The estimated cost of the KCR project was $2.6 billion at that time, however, JICA dissociated from the project after the feasibility process in 2012.”
The chief minister said that KCR had been included in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project over his request by the then prime minister in 2016 as “12-kilometre-long portion of KCR track was overlapping with ML-1.”
Shah said, “The project was approved by Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in 2017 with the cost of $207.6 billion. KCR route is 43.13-kilometre-long including 14.95-kilometre at grade and 28.18-kilometre elevated with 24 railway stations to provide high capacity services to 550,000 passengers on a daily basis.”
“Sindh government will provide maximum support to the railway officials for the revival of KCR.
During the session, secretary railway briefed the chief minister that KCR routes will be revived in line with its allotment plan within the next six months besides the continuation of development work for meeting its requirements on modern lines.
The Federal and Sindh governments have agreed on a plan to run local trains on a 12-km long trial run during the next two months, with it being connected to modern circular railway system in the second phase.
A meeting regarding decisions taken in the council of common interests (CCI) meeting and the implementation of Supreme Court directives regarding circular train was held in Karachi on Saturday. Important decisions were taken during the meeting between Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar.
They discussed how local trains could be started in the next few months and whether the KCR could jeopardize the local train system. The meeting decided that local trains would run a distance of 12 km (from City Station to Site) on a trial basis for the next two months.
It was also decided that a highly professional advisor will be hired to study how modern KCR system could be adapted to the local train system.
Secretary Railways Habib-ur-Rehman briefed about the three phased projects. The first phase includes construction of a single line track, rolling off stock, deputation of human resources and operations. In the second phase, tracks, signaling, underpasses, fencing and flyovers will be constructed.
In the third phase, transaction advisory services will be launched for modern urban rail-based mass transit, PPP mode, financial model and cross-subsidized models such as government model and land trading.
Earlier on September 30, the Sindh cabinet had approved the release of Rs97 million for Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project.
