Sindh to get KUTC, right of way to revive circular railway

The Government of Sindh and the Pakistan Railways have broken the logjam on the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) by reaching consensus on several issues delaying the project.

Among other decisions, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid have agreed on the handing over of the federal government-owned Karachi Urban Transport Company (KUTC) and the right of way to the provincial administration.

They eliminated all the bottlenecks during a meeting at the CM House on Monday so that the work on the KCR project can be revived by getting the financial approval from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) Joint Coordination Committee (JCC), which is scheduled to meet this April in Beijing.

Chronology

Providing the chronology of KCR to the railways minister, CM Shah said that on December 3, 2016 he had requested the then prime minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to include the project in the CPEC framework.

He had also issued a sovereign guarantee for its revival, asking for the KUTC to be handed over to the Sindh government and the right of way to the transport company.

Sharif had approved all the requests and formed a committee for the purpose. The decision to revive KCR was taken in the sixth JCC meeting in Beijing on December 29, 2016.

On October 6, 2017 the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council had approved the KCR project at a cost of Rs207.6 billion ($1.97 billion) through a Chinese loan.

The Sindh Transport & Mass Transit Department issued the administrative approval for the project on November 8, 2017. Shah said KCR was technically qualified and matured for implementation in the seventh JCC meeting on November 21, 2017.

In the eighth meeting on December 20, 2018 the KCR’s importance was recognised, and in the ninth meeting in Islamabad on November 6, 2019 the Chinese side asked Pakistan’s government to submit the financing request to them.

The CM said that in Islamabad he had met CPEC Authority Chairman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa, who had assured him that the KCR project would be implemented in letter and spirit.

Shah said the KUTC, in which the federal and provincial governments owned 60 per cent and 40 per cent shares respectively, had not been handed over to the Sindh administration so that a consultant could be appointed to move the KCR matters forward.

Rashid told the CM that he would hand over the KUTC to the Sindh government, for which a committee under Sindh Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah and Federal Railways Secretary Habibur Rehman Gilani was formed to finalise the formalities and arrangements for the handover within a month.

The provincial chief executive told the meeting that the KUTC would have to file an application with the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan to request the change of administration.

Encroachments

Talking about the removal of encroachments along the KCR route, Shah said that 33 of the 38 kilometres have been cleared. Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani said that the remaining would also be cleared of encroachers when the Pakistan Railways comes up for action.

The CM and Rashid constituted another committee under the commissioner, with the Pakistan Railways Karachi Divisional Superintendent Nisar Memon and other officials as its members, for the removal of encroachments from the remaining portion of the KCR route within a month and report back to the government.

Other issues

The issues pending with the Pakistan Railways include a topography survey and a geotechnical investigation of the section of ML-1 (Main Line 1, or the Karachi-Lahore-Peshawar railway line) overlapping with the KCR route — from the City Station to Drigh Road — which is yet to be completed.

The CM said that the design of this section of the railway track would be conceived on the completion of the geotechnical investigation and the topographic survey. He said the signing of the framework agreement of the KCR project was pending with the Ministry of Planning & Development for its concurrence from the federal cabinet and onward transmission to the National Development & Reform Commission in Beijing.

He added that the concessional financing request was pending with the Economic Affairs Division of the federal government that has to forward the request through the Embassy of China in Islamabad to the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing.

Shah said the issuance of the sovereign guarantee was pending with the Finance Division. “It should be expedited for getting the support of the financial institutions.”

Rashid assured the CM that his ministry would extend maximum cooperation to revive the KCR project at the earliest. The meeting also agreed that the people affected by the project would be rehabilitated by constructing houses for them on Pakistan Railways land available anywhere. Shah stressed making all the arrangements, including the clearance of the right of way and the completion of documentation and other relevant paperwork, by the end of March so that the financial releases of KCR could be negotiated in the upcoming JCC meeting.

KCR route

The route of the KCR project is 43.13 kilometres long, with 14.95km at grade and 28.18km elevated. It would be connected with the airport just after the completion of the original project.

It would have 8.3km priority section from the Wazir Mansion to Manghopir. There would be 24 stations, of them 14 would be elevated stations and 10 at grade, while KCR would have a separate yard.

The KCR route starts from the Wazir Mansion, passing through Lyari, Baldia, Shah Abdul Latif, SITE, Manghopir (the priority section), HBL, Aurangabad, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Yaseenabad, Gilani, Nipa, Aladin Park, Jauhar, Drigh Road, Karsaz, Shaheed-e-Millat, Chanesar, Naval at Korangi Road, Karachi Cantt, DOCs, Karachi City and Tower, and back to the Wazir Mansion. From Drigh Road an extension of KCR would be constructed for the Jinnah Terminal via Drigh Colony, Star Gate and the Jinnah Terminal.

In his concluding remarks, Shah said KCR, together with the allied mass transit projects, were the ultimate solutions for the people of the mega city.

The meeting was also attended by the CM’s law adviser Murtaza Wahab, the CM’s Principal Secretary Sajid Jamal Abro, Transport Secretary Abbas Detho, Pakistan Railways Senior General Manager Dost Ali Leghari, Railways Planning Director General Syed Mazhar Ali and Railways Additional General Manager Furrukh Taimoor.