KARACHI -  The Sindh government and the Pakistan Railways have formed a working group to complete all legal formalities to hand over the administrative control of the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC) and Right of Way of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) to Sindh.

This decision was taken in a meeting held between Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique at the CM House on Friday. The chief minister was assisted by Transport Minister Syed Nasir Shah, Additional Chief Secretary (Dev) Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch, Transport Secretary Taha Farooqui and Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi. The federal minister was assisted by his three team members.

The CM said that he had revived the Karachi Circular Railway project. “I held a number of meetings and took up this issue with Chinese authorities to include it in the CPEC and I assure you these efforts will bear fruit,” he said.

He said the length of the original KCR project was 43.12km, starting from Drigh Road, and it would cost $2,609 million. He said that scope of the project had been expanded and it could now be started from City Station and taken to the Steel Mills, Super Highway and DHA City. “This will cover the entire city, including industrial areas,” he said.

The chief minister and the federal minister agreed that a new feasibility of the project may be prepared through international bidding to meet future needs of the KCR. However, the focus would remain on starting the project. He said that he would visit China to attend the Joint Council for Cooperation (JCC) by end of this month and discuss inclusion of this project in the CPEC projects.

It may be noted that KCR was commissioned in 1964 and it remained an effective mass transportation system till 1984. Its operational efficiency was adversely affected due to level crossings resulting in an increased running time and a lack of investment. This resulted in reduced number of trains. Therefore, the operational efficiency kept on deteriorating and resulted in reduction of ridership and subsequently closure in December 1999.

Later, on the recommendation of the federal government, JICA carried out a study in 2008 and filed its report in 2009. JICA proposed a soft loan, but it never materialised due to one or the other reason.

In 2008, KUTC was formed with 60 percent share of the Pakistan Railways, 25 percent share of the Sindh government and 15 percent share of the KMC. The KUTC had to implement the KCR project. The chief minister made a plan to start the KCR project and take over the administrative control of KUTC.

Discussing this move, Shah said that he had written a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, requesting him to hand over the ownership of the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC), which had been formed to implement the KCR, support the Sindh government to have the KCR project included in the CPEC and give sovereign guarantees for the KCR project. “I am thankful to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that he approved the letter as he received it,” he said, and added that he was thankful to the prime minister that he was supporting the cause of people of Sindh.

Rafique said the prime minister had agreed to hand over the administrative control of the KUTC and he had assured the Sindh government of his full support.

The two leaders agreed to form a working group to evolve a mechanism to hand over management of the KUTC and Right of Way to Sindh. The working group consists of ACS (Dev) Mohammad Waseem, Transport Secretary Taha Farooqui, Karachi commissioner, Railways Chief Engineer Basharat, Karachi DS and the chief marketing manager. They would start holding meetings from next week.

The federal minister assured the chief minister that he would provide necessary expertise to the Sindh government for the project.

During the meeting, it was agreed that Pakistan Railways land measuring 260 acres would be given to the Sindh government for construction of KCR. It was also pointed out that there were 3,600 encroachers along the KCR route; therefore the chief minister directed his team to work out a plan to remove the encroachment.

It was also decided that besides moving forward with the JICA study, the Sindh government would invite international firms to conduct another study of the project as its scope had been expanded considerably.

Shah told his team that he wanted a clean plan for removal of encroachments so that he would start constructing a wall around the proposed project. “This is overdue and the PPP government wants to give this gift to the people of Karachi,” he said.

Lauding the efforts and enthusiasm of the chief minister, Rafique said, “Your leadership is so dynamic that you can do it,” he said, and added that his ministry would support the Sindh chief minister on every step of the way.