KARACHI: Arbab reviews mass transit, water supply schemes
KARACHI, Nov 18: The Chief Minister, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, on Thursday presided over a high-level meeting held to review the Karachi Mass Transit and leakage in Karachi's water supply schemes.
The meeting was told that many proposals had came under consideration for setting up a mass transit system from Sohrab Goth to Tower.
The Director General, Karachi Mass Transit Cell, Malik Zaheerul Islam, informed the meeting that the tram service, abolished in 1975, had been functioning in Karachi before partition, while the Karachi Circular Railway system was implemented 1954.Besides, he said that 2,380 buses were plying on 19 routes under the public transport scheme, in addition to 6,284 minibuses on 102 routes, and 3,562 coaches on 63 routes, he added.
He added that recently 230 buses, coaches had started plying on 10 routes under the Karachi Public Transport scheme, and a further 200 buses would soon be added on 10 routes under the Urban Transport System.
He told the meeting that 11 surveys were conducted from 1952 to 2002 regarding mass transport in the metropolis, and schemes to operate light trains on six routes were devised.
He said that a scheme to operate light trains on 15.2 km long routes from Sohrab Goth to New Sabzi Mandi, and a 13.4 km long route from Cantt Station to Orangi Town were among them. While laying of 58 km long railway tracks under improvement of KCR were also part of the scheme.
Mr Malik said that a study, ordered by President Pervez Musharraf during a presentation on September 3, 2002 in Karachi, was conducted to assess the MAGLEV project on the basis of build, operate and transfer in consultation with the Board of Investment and Planning Commission, so that a final decision could be taken in this regard.
He said two offers were received in connection with the train service from Sohrab Goth to Tower. He said the scheme would be completed at an estimated cost of $600 million, for which the city government had approached the federal government. The latter constituted a high-level authorised committee on July 15, 2004, but its results were different.- PPI
