KARACHI, Jan 12: The 14 million people of the largest city of the country were happy with the news some four months back that the Karachi circular railway was going to be revived shortly as the feasibility was in the final stages.

But soon a European company came into the picture just before the final approval of the KCR project. It submitted attractive proposals magnetizing not only City Nazim Naimatullah Khan but also the top slot in the provincial and federal governments, including President Pervez Musharraf.

The European company — the Inter-Globe TransCar Group— proposed an elevated magno (electro-magnetic) train in the city, the tracks of which would be later expanded to the entire country.

The company offered to invest $1.2 billion and build the infrastructure without financial help from the government. The company also pledged to submit its feasibility in 15 days.

Highly impressed by the proposals, City Nazim Naimatullah Khan set aside the KCR project and signed an MoU with the company. He also promised the company to provide them with the right of way of the existing Karachi circular railway.

In a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf on Sept 2, 2002, the city and provincial governments, obsessed by the magno train project, did not press for the revival of the Rs12 billion KCR project. The discussion remained focussed on the magno train project and the KCR project was not properly defended. Consequently it was dropped.

The reason given by the federal government for dropping the project was that the government did not have sufficient funds. The provincial and city governments were advised to explore other ways to improve the transport network.

However, more than four months have lapsed and the company’s representatives have not turned up with the feasibility for final approval from the quarters concerned in the government, nor has it indicated its arrival in the near future. But the officials of the Karachi Mass Transit Cell are still hopeful that the company would be back with its proposals.

Having apparently failed to turn his dream into reality, the city Nazim, who is by one way or the other responsible for depriving the 14 million people of an environment-friendly, comfortable, sustainable and economical project, is once again trying to drive the people into another fool’s paradise. The city government has invited a Malaysian delegation for discussion on an elevated monorail project. Malaysia itself does not have practical experience of the project. The monorail system is in the process of being built and might become operational by April this year.

A project, similar to a great extent, was studied and a consortium of three foreign companies had expressed interest in building elevated light-rail at the corridor-I from Sohrab Goth to Merewether Tower at the cost of more than $600 million. However, the federal government expressed its inability to release the required funds as a guarantee.

The city government should keep in mind the past studies and harsh experiences in the transport sector while taking steps to improve the transport system in the city.

On the other hand the city government has allowed large buses to ply in the city to bring a change in the existing transport culture. The government has not taken any action against the yellow devils (minibuses) and coaches which are not defined in the law and are plying in sheer violation of the rules and regulations. They are involved in a number of fatal and nonfatal accidents.