KARACHI: Vested interests blamed for delays in mass transit project
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Aug 21: Like many uplift projects, the Karachi Mass Transit Project, approved and notified by the Pakistan government way back in 1995 for light rail system, has yet to materialise reportedly due to powerful vested interests.
All efforts made by the federal, Sindh and the city governments to implement the project’s first two out of the six priority corridors seem to end in failure and any change in the status of the project in the near future is nowhere in sight. Similarly, the CNG buses project and the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway is likely to meet the same fate.
These observations were made during a meeting of the KMT Cell held on Monday in the office of Sindh Chief Secretary Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, who also presided over the meeting, sources told Dawn.
The KMTP Director-General, Malik Zaheerul Islam, brief the chief secretary on the project. The meeting was held to review the traffic situation at almost all important arteries of the metropolis during rush hour causing great inconvenience both to commuters and pedestrians and also hampering the movement of ambulances.
The situation prompted the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take a suo motu action in this regard.
Observers may recall that the city government on Oct 13, 2006 had signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with M/s Infrastructure Development Company to implement priority-I corridor from Sohrab Goth to Tower for light rail transit system on a BOT basis while for corridor-II from Orangi to Cantt Station, Expressions of Interest (EoIs) were invited.
The meeting was informed that the Bus Rapid Transit System, which was planned on a “private-public partnership based public transport system for Karachi” in 2006 by the KMTC to operate feeder service and CNG bus project, was also awaiting approval from the federal authorities concerned.
The feasibility of the project, which was prepared by a Thai consultant firm, had been circulated among over two dozen transport experts, donor agencies and financial institutions and the ADB had reportedly agreed to provide technical and financial assistance. According to sources privy to the meeting, it was also informed that the CDGK cell had prepared a PC-I worth Rs4.5 billion for the induction of 2,825 buses of 12 meters and 910 buses of 7.5 meters for feeder service.
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) had approved the project in February last and decided to kick off the project with the introduction of 500 CNG buses during the current year for which a steering committee was also set up.
The committee had so far held three meetings with various financial institutions and transporters and the specification for CNG buses were forwarded to the federal government for approval.
According to sources, the chief secretary said that as huge finances were involved in the project, a high-level meeting should be held with the Sindh governor and chief minister along with the stakeholders representatives so that the bottlenecks if any, could be overcome and the project could take off and the commuters be facilitated by providing them a comfortable and efficient bus service at the earliest.
