Sindh, Centre to start work on mega projects, including KCR

KARACHI: The Sindh and federal governments on Friday unanimously decided to remove all the impediments to mega projects, including the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), laying of railway track to transport Thar Coal to upcountry, functionalisation of different airports and resolution of land dispute between the provincial government and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on top priority basis.

The decisions were made in a meeting held between Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Federal Minister for Railways and Aviation Khawaja Saad Rafique, which was attended by their respective teams at the CM House.

CM Shah said Karachi was a megalopolis and its traffic issues could only be resolved with the establishment of a modern KCR system, which would be supplemented and integrated with different BRT lines. Tracing history, he said the KCR was initially commissioned in 1964 and till 1984, it remained an effective mass transportation project, adding that after 1984, its operational efficiency kept deteriorating, resulting in the reduction of ridership and subsequently, the service was closed in December 1999.

The CM said the project was included in the CPEC priority-based projects and was approved by the CPEC-related Joint Coordination Committee in December 2016. The ECNEC had approved the project at a cost of Rs207,546 million, including Chinese loan of $1.971 billion, he said, adding that the National Railway Authority, China, had approved the feasibility being in conformity with Chinese standards in November 2017.

He said the project had been approved by all the relevant forums but on ground nothing had been done. Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to China was scheduled and would take place shortly, where he would accompany him. He said the KCR was on the agenda of the discussion to take place in China and hopefully, it would be approved.

The Sindh CM said the time has come to fuel all the coal-fired power projects with indigenous Thar coal. “This would not only save the foreign exchange but also would be cheaper than the imported coal,” he said, urging the railway minister to expedite laying of railway track from the Thar Coal Mines to the main line. The meeting, after a thorough discussion on different tracks, finally approved a 105-km Thar Coal Fields to New Chhor Halt Station on Mirpurkhas-Khokhrapar Section.

The CM took up another issue of functionalisation of three airports, including Hyderabad, Sehwan and Mai Bakhtawar Airport, Thar. The minister for Railways and Aviation said his team had told him that there were some encroachment issues at the Hyderabad Airport. Sindh Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said he would resolve the issue, if the Aviation Division agreed to functionalise the airport.

The meeting decided to send a technical team to study ways and means to functionalise the Hyderabad Airport and conduct similar inspections at the Sehwan and Thar airports. The CM said the Thar Airport was the most important as charter flights were landing there, therefore, its functionalisation has a commercial value.

The CM told the visiting federal minister that around 80 acres of Sindh government’s land had been claimed by the Civil Aviation Authority as its property near the airport, adding that the provincial government has to utilise it for the establishment of a depot for its Red Line BRT.

The meeting also decided to resolve the issue amicably and constitute a committee comprising the chief secretary, member Survey of Pakistan and senior member Board of Revenue and a member from the Civil Aviation Authority to look into the matter and give recommendations within a month. The CM thanked Federal Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique for promising to resolve all the outstanding issues concerning his ministries.

Meanwhile, Khawaja Saad Rafique also visited the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P)’s headquarters to meet the party leaders, where he said the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) would be the top priority during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s upcoming visit to China.

The railways minister met MQM-P’s convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, central leaders Amir Khan, Waseem Akhtar, Syed Aminul Haque, and Kishwer Zehra, where the PMLN Sindh leaders, including Ali Akbar Gujjar, Salman Khan, and Nasrudin Mehsud accompanied him.

Talking to the journalists after the meeting, Rafique said the PMLN wants to keep a long-term partnership with the MQM-P. “We have inked an agreement and because of it, both the parties would continue their consultation,” he said. “After inking the agreement, both the parties are also mulling to form a bilateral coordination committee in Islamabad, so that the necessary decisions could be taken together in the interest of Karachi and the country,” he said. He said the KCR project would be put on a fast-track mode and it would be completed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Rafique said the federal government has been planning to make the Hyderabad Airport functional and upgrade the Sukkur Airport to an international airport.