Sindh says Center not cooperating in Karachi Circular Railway project

The restoration of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) has become a headache for the bureaucracy in Sindh as it cited the problems of encroachments and lack of cooperation on the part of the Railways authorities.

In the given situation, the chief secretary on Monday decided to inform Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah about the Railways officials who are not extending any assistance to materialise the plan.

At a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah, 24 News reported, the relevant officials said that they required the cooperation of the federal government to ensure removal of encroachments, without which the plan was nothing but sheer imagination.

Expressing his anger, the chief secretary said it was impossible to restore the Karachi Circular Railway – a plan considered essential for solving the transport problems in the megacity.

The meeting decided that buses would be operated from the busy markets and neighbourhoods to the railway stations so that the commuters could benefit from the mass transit project.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had ordered the government to make the project operational in six months, as the chief justice expressed his anger over lack of public transport in the city.

Last month, the Sindh government and the Pakistan Railways agreed on a framework for the KCR project after a meeting between the provincial chief minister and the railways minister, Sheikh Rashid.

Murad had said that the Sindh government would provide 15 per cent [Rs40 billion] of the project cost.

Twenty-four railway stations would be built for the KCR project, while the government also considering to give compensation to over 4,600 people likely to be affected in the process.