KARACHI, Feb 14: The local train operation is likely to be inaugurated in the next fortnight and the service will be gradually converted into Karachi Circular Railway by extending its loop to other parts of the city
, sources in Railway and Transport departments said.
They said that the coaches were in their final stage of refurbishment and engines would be ready by the end of this month. A date for the inauguration of the local train service has not yet been fixed, but March 1 is being regarded as the tentative date.
The local train would shuttle between the City Station, Malir and Landhi in the initial phase. The sources said that the operation would be started with 30 coaches, each of them having a capacity, seating and standing, of 140 passengers. Initially, 10 trains of six coaches each -- five up and five down -- would be operated. The timings and ticketing procedure would be decided in a few days.
According to the sources, a private company has been awarded the ticketing system and there are two options under consideration, the first being a computerized and automatic ticketing system and the other a token system. The suitable one would be worked out and finalized before the inauguration.
The Sindh government had planned and announced the resumption of the train services under the revived project of KCR by January 15, but it failed to fulfil its commitment.
The operation of local train, which is being labelled as part of the KCR, has been made possible after the Sindh transport minister, Pakistan Railway officials, provincial transport department and officials of the city government's transport department convened successive meetings of the Task Force, formed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in this regard.
The prime minister had directed the task force to prepare an action plan to revive the KCR service as soon as possible. The Sindh government, at a meeting of the Task Force, chaired by federal Minister of State for Railways Ishaque Khakwani on November 19, had submitted an action plan providing for the resumption of KCR operation by January 15.
Besides Mr Khakwani, Sindh Minister for Transport Adil Siddiqui and the CDGK's EDO Transport are members of the Task Force. The sources said the Sindh government had assured the Task Force that the train service would be extended to Nazimabad in the second phase and the entire loop would be made effective within two years provided the federal funds required for the purpose were released.
The sources said that the KCR tracks had been encroached upon with a mala fide intention by 'builders mafia' eying the prized land having tracks on it. The mafia, they said, wanted the KCR project dropped so that high-rises could be built on the Railway's lands.
Officials in the city government's transport department said that the work to clear the tracks was about to be kicked off. They observed that the tracks had not been encroached upon, but there were some hurdles which would have to be removed before the start of the KCR operation.
The Sindh government had already spent more than Rs3 billion on raising flyovers over level-crossings for an uninterrupted flow of circular train but the KCR operation had to be suspended on Dec 15, 1999 after the Pakistan Railway, citing recurring losses, refused to operate the trains anymore.
