KARACHI: KCR revival must for development, say experts
KARACHI, April 22: Experts of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Higher Education Commission and Standing Committee on Scientific and Technical Cooperation in a study report have termed revival of the Karachi Circular Railway necessary for country’s socio-economic development and recommended the government to revitalize this project under the public-private partnership.
In the report titled “Technology-based industrial vision and strategy for Pakistan’s socio-economic development”, written by famed experts Dr Attaur Rahman, Dr A.R. Kemal, Rehana Siddiqui, Muslehuddin, Zafar Mueen Nasir, Munir Ahmed, Ejaz Ghani, Muhammad Iqbal, Syed Tanveer Naim and others, it is stated that good quality transport sector is important in the development of a country as it helps in trade enhancement, tourism development, foreign investment and consequential economic growth. The share of transport sector in Pakistan’s GDP is 11.1 per cent and it provides employment to 5.9 per cent of the workforce.
The report says major issues of the transport sector include inadequate physical capacity, poor maintenance system, wrongly targeted priorities of investment, operational and financial inefficiencies of the public investment, and lack of private sector participation. Major problems faced by urban transportation include slow traffic and congestion, frequent accidents, air pollution, and high vehicle costs due to poor road conditions.
It suggests developing a good urban transport system to provide fast, comfortable, safe and affordable services to residents. “To achieve this goal, the strategy is to develop an integrated mass transport system through proper investments, capacity improvement, institutional strengthening and building public-private partnership,” it says.
Stressing the need for early revitalization of Karachi Circular Railway, the report says the KCR was originally put into operation in 1964 as a part of Pakistan Railway system, but ceased operations in 2000 due to deterioration of facilities and services.
It may be recalled that the Pakistan Railways started the Karachi Circular Railway to provide better transportation facilities to people. Thousands of people travelled daily and KCR earned half a million rupees in the first year alone and revenue continued to increase. However, transport mafia did not like this cost-effective and efficient rail-based system and conspiracies were hatched against it. The alleged nexus of corrupt bureaucrats and transporters succeeded in failing this system through rampant corruption and mismanagement. At last KCR trains got discontinued to a minuscule number in 1994 after incurring huge losses and ceased to operate in 1999.
Due to transport problems and public pressure, the federal government decided to revive the KCR. In 2004 President General Musharraf issued orders for complete revival of the KCR by 2006. On these orders, work began and on March 8, 2005 partial service of the KCR was started from Landhi to Wazir Mansion railway stations. It was told that KCR would soon be extended to Nazimabad and Geelani stations in the nsxt phase. But, the work on that phase could never start for the reasons best known to the authorities concerned.
The task to run circular trains on the Landhi-Wazir Mansion section was given to private sector, but due to constant losses the Pakistan Railways took over charge of the KCR and cut the number of local trains from 10 to eight. According to sources, the Pakistan Railways bore Rs52.8 million losses from March 2005 to August 2006 in KCR operations. It was alleged that once again mismanagement of officials was the cause of these losses.
However, according to Karachi Divisional Commercial Officer of the Pakistan Railways, Syed Hasan Tahir Bukhari, KCR earnings in the first half of April 2007 was encouraging. He hoped through the KCR operations, the Railways would earn about Rs0.6 million a month. He said the closure of the Wazir Mansion-Dhabeji route also reduced the costs of KCR operations and added that the route was used mostly by railway employees who did not buy tickets.
It is learnt that some Japanese firms and banks are keen to offer loans for KCR revival. In this regard, recently the newly appointed representative of Japan Bank of International Cooperation in Pakistan met Sindh Chief Secretary Shakeel Durrani and offered financial assistance for the KCR revival.
During the meeting, the Japanese official said their institution, along with the government, were willing to extend financial cooperation of several hundred million dollars for the revival of KCR. The total estimated cost of KCR revival is around 850 million dollars. The Pakistan Railways is technically capable of reviving, extending and modernizing the KCR and the funding could be obtained through local banks and private sector as well.
It is vital that this important urban public transport system should be revitalized through the public-private partnership as recommended by the PIDE, the HEC and the Standing Committee on Scientific and Technical Cooperation.—PPI
