October 8, 2001	Monday	Rajab 20, 1422

THE government, recently has indicated that the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) continues to be a victim of bureaucratic wrangling. First, the railways minister threatened to ‘stop’ the KCR service because of what he deemed to be the “indifferent attitude” of the Sindh government, contending that operating a ‘metropolitan service’ like the KCR is not the responsibility of the national railways and that the Sindh government had failed to respond to his offer to take over the KCR and run it.

The Sindh government has had several grievances against the railways concerning the KCR operations. Now the federal government has asked the Sindh government to submit the PC-I for revitalization of the KCR. The provincial government has been specifically urged to include, besides the usual technical and financial aspects, a proposal showing the details of how the KCR is to be handed over to it.

The Sindh Transport Minister, Dewan Yusuf Farooqui, has accordingly directed the concerned officials - a three-member committee consisting representatives of the Planning and Development Department, Karachi Mass Transit and the Pakistan Railways - to submit the PC-I for revitalization of the KCR within a month. At the very start, however, the federal railways minister has set the tone by his adverse view that the KCR was no more a useful or relevant service in Karachi as there are not enough link bus routes. There are many areas beyond the access of the KCR”.

The Sindh government’s grievances in the past against the railways concerning the KCR operations include the following:

*The KCR has been neglected over the years, and both the tracks and the railway stations bear marks of dereliction.

*Even the railway lands along the KCR have been encroached upon, these being dangerously close to the railway tracks in some areas.

*The railways has not seriously tackled the question of providing a relatively frequent and inexpensive service to the commuters.

How far these contentions of the respective parties hold true? If there are “not enough link bus routes and if there are many areas beyond the access of the KCR”, what is the reason for this situation? And what ought to be done. One reason is that the initial KCR plan was not adhered to, and the delays and procrastination allowed the situation on the ground to change. But the remedy is not to close the KCR down altogether but to find ways to overcome the problems. Provide road transport links and bring more areas under its network, by providing new loops, rather than using these as pretexts to abandon the KCR. The neglect would only add to further encroachment and even pilferage of the railway property as happened on some of the branch lines in the Punjab that were closed by the railways, under the claim that they were ‘unprofitable’. This highly valuable asset must be prevented from turning into junk.

Then there is the tran