Calling it a ‘great news’ for Karachiites and predicting to be ‘a world-class transport facility’ in the making, the federal government on Wednesday approved the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project, which will be built in three years at an estimated cost of more than Rs200 billion.
While the besieged Prime Minister Imran Khan was facing a no-confidence vote jointly filed by opposition parties, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government and its leadership saw the approval of the train plan as a major development and described it as a ‘proof of their commitment’ to Karachiites and a ‘justification’ for their mandate from the metropolis.
The approval of the mega project came at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), presided by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin.
It gave a nod to the development, operation and maintenance of KCR as a modern urban railway under public-private partnership mode at a total cost of Rs201.572bn.
The project cost was revised in Ecnec meeting as the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and the Public-Private Partnership Authority (P3A) Board had last month cleared its cost at Rs273bn.
“The project envisages construction of a 43.225-kilometre dual track urban mass transit system to be built in a period of three years. Karachi Circular Railways Management Company (KCRMC) will be responsible to keep an oversight related to the execution, operation and maintenance of the project,” said a statement.
The Ecnec also set up a committee led by the finance minister to review the transaction structure related to the federal government for viability gap funding (VGF) contribution.
In September 2021, PM Khan performed the groundbreaking ceremony of the KCR at the Karachi Cantonment Railway Station. Under the fresh plan, the 44km KCR would be rebuilt by constructing three underpasses, a flyover and an elevated 6.4-km structure along with the laying of new rail tracks on most part of the route for running electric trains.
With the groundbreaking ceremony of the KCR and its approval by the Ecnec coupled with the commercial launch of the Green Line bus service in January 2022, the federal government sees a resolution of the transport crisis in Karachi in “one of the best circular railway systems in the world”.
