04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 3: The summary is ready to be placed before the federal cabinet for final approval regarding revival of the Karachi Circular Railway.

This was stated by the parliamentary leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in the National Assembly, Dr Farooq Sattar, here on Saturday.

"Karachi is the fastest-growing city in the world and in order to inter-connect this city a modern means of transport is required," Dr Sattar told APP.

He said that for this purpose very soon two projects were going to be launched. One of them was the revival of the Circular Railway with the cooperation of Chinese investors.

He said that there was going to be a private-public joint partnership and a consortium would be running the project.

Dr Farooq Sattar said the second project for the city was the Karachi Mass Transit Programme.

Farooq Sattar pointed out that the third project, K-3, related to addressing water problem and was already in hand.

It would be completed by next year after which Karachiites would get an additional 100mgd water. He said there was a supplementary project to repair and plug leakages of water mains to prevent water losses.

Dr Sattar said 33 per cent of the water supplied to Karachi was lost in the process.

Dr Sattar said: "We have asked Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz for a grant or a special allocation to the tune of Rs1.2 billion from the federal government," and the provincial government would also be approached to provide a matching amount.

He also pointed to the Northern Bypass and Lyari Expressway projects which, he said, when completed would help solve the city's transport problems. - APP