KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Saturday ordered the concerned authorities to oversee and make sure of clearing all encroachments on Railways land in the port city so that the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project could be relaunched.
A meeting in this regard was chaired by Justice Gulzar Ahmed at the apex court’s Karachi registry.
It was during the meeting that the divisional superintendent highlighted that land owned by the Pakistan Railways was clustered with several encroachments.
The court, while ordering authorities to clear all the land with the help of the deputy commissioner (DC), further directed them to prepare train compartments and revive tramlines for the project with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and local administration’s assistance.
Issuing further orders regarding the anti-encroachment drive, the court ordered Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and cantonment boards to raze down encroachments and also demolish shops illegally built under the FTC Bridge as it wanted to see the city free of encroachments as soon as possible.
If the KCR begins functioning again, it could serve millions of daily commuters resulting in freedom from bottlenecks and severe traffic jams often seen in the port city.
