KARACHI: While an appraisal mission of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is due in Karachi next week to assess conditions required for signing a $2.5bn soft loan for the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), analysts believe that political will and active support from the federal government are necessary for the early revival of the project.

Karachi Urban Transport Company’s managing director Aijaz Hussain Khilji told Dawn that some 46 conditions laid by the JICA had been fulfilled and the mission’s visit date was expected to be finalised in the current week.

He said the mission was due here on June 4, but the visit was postponed following an attack on the Old Terminal of Karachi airport.

Mr Khilji said that the law and order situation and terrorism incidents resulted in postponing of a financial accord as the JICA mission could not make it. However, he was quite optimistic that once the agreement was signed there would be no hurdle left in starting work on the KCR.

Analysts, however, were of the view that the KCR so far failed to make any headway in the right direction after its shutdown in 1999 for want of political will by the rulers in the province and active support from the federal government.

They wondered that if Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sahrif could start work at different places on the metro bus project and simultaneously initiate a train project to be completed in two years then as to why the early revival of the KCR was not possible.

They gave the example of former Karachi nazim Mustafa Kamal during whose tenure certain public welfare projects were completed in the minimum possible time just because of the political will and support of the federal government.

The analysts said if there was political will and support from the federal government the KCR revival was possible even before 2017.

The KCR, which was Pakistan’s first modern public transport system, introduced in 1969, was an instant success and made a significant profit in its first year of operation. During the 1970s and 1980s the KCR was at its peak with 104 daily trains, of which 80 trains ran on the main track while the remaining 24 ran on the loop line.

During the 1990s, the private transporters of Karachi contracted KCR staff who indulged in corruption. By 1994 the KCR was incurring major losses and as a result the vast majority of trains were discontinued with only a few running on the loop.

In 1999 KCR operations were discontinued. The result was instant gridlock on Karachi roads.

The projected KCR will consist of a loop line from Karachi City to Drigh Road via Liaquatabad. Some 29 kilometres will be revived with an additional 21 kilometre dual track from Karachi City to Jinnah International Airport, allowing the KCR to connect to the Pakistan Railway main line. The KCR is expected to carry on average of 700,000 passengers on 24 trains daily when completed.

According to the loan term and condition, the cost of the project had scaled up from $1.83bn to $2.5bn on which mark-up rate would be nominal of 0.2 per cent payable within 40 years with an initial 10 years grace period.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2014