A ray of hope for the revival of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) as again emerged as the Pakistan Railways have earmarked 250 acres of land to resettle the encroachers who have occupied the precious tracks of this vital urban transport project of Karachi.
Spadework on repairing of the abandoned track is expected in next five months, say Pakistan Railways sources. They said the railway ministry was fully committed to repairing and running the abandoned surface rail urban transport project utilizing its own resources and making a viable business plan to operate it sound commercial basis. Making operational the KCR would help in mitigating the sufferings of millions of Karachi commuter and also provide the Pakistan Railway a good operating profit as there is huge demand of urban transport in the mega city of Pakistan.
Encroachments patronised by politically-backed land mafias have been considered a major hurdle in the revival of KCR, but now the railway ministry has allocated 250 acres of land to shift all encroachments from the route of KCR and resettle the squatters on this land. In this regard the National Assembly committee on railways has been officially informed that the land has already been made available for an early start of the KCR repair and renovation.
Though the Sindh government is still undecided whether to adopt the KCR or continue to betray it, the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC) despite spending millions of rupees of the taxpayers of Sindh on its army of officers and employees has done nothing concrete for the revival of the KCR and proved itself yet another white elephant of Sindh treasury. Insiders say the revival of KCR would be a gift for Karachiites by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and it would certainly help in improving the image of the party in Sindh including Karachi.
Railway engineers and experts are of the opinion that the rulers wasted decades by just making false promises of modernizing the KCR with the loans of JICA; however, all the KCR needed repair of its abandoned tracks, signal system, local trains stations and assigning a dozen of old locomotives that are unfit for long hauls and sufficient rolling stock. In future the KCR could be modernised and even made a metro or tube rail if the required funds are available. Presently, old local trains could also be sufficient to facilitate millions of Karachi commuters.
The experts further say if the engineers and technicians are given the green signal, the repair and running of the KCR is a matter of just two months. It would not only further improve the leadership image of Khawaja Saad Rafique and his party but also help Karachi being a respectable urban city in terms of public transport.
The sources said spadework on the KCR revival could be started in March 2016 and local trains would run on it by June 2016, provided the provincial government of Sindh and its white elephant Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC) did not create some hurdles in this vital project for Karachi.
Though there is no dearth of lip service by the Sindh rulers for the cause of urban transport system of Karachi including the KCR, they had promised revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) besides five bus transit, two metro rail transit for the mega city, but like previous years the Sindh government had yet to take a solid step for the revival of the KCR. It just waits for the Japanese or Chinese costly loans to initiate work on the KCR.
