KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali has decided to take up the issue of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to make it part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Presiding over a meeting on the KCR project at the New Secretariat here on Tuesday, the chief minister said he would write a letter to the prime minister to include the project in the CPEC. He said he would also hold a meeting with the Chinese ambassador and Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal in this regard.

Mr Shah said: “Traffic issues in the city are on the rise and turning complicated day by day. Solution to these problems lies in the KCR and Rapid Bus Transport (RBT) apart from effective traffic management, widening of roads and the construction of underpasses and flyovers.”

The chief minister directed the transport department to prepare the KCR case for the CPEC. “I am sure my efforts will produce results,” he added. Earlier while briefing the chief minister on the KCR project, Transport Secretary Taha Farooqui said the length of the project was 43.12 kilometres with 23.86km elevated, 3.7km tunnel and 15.56km surface. The designated speed of KCR trains would be 100km an hour. The KCR, which would have 24 stations across the city, would benefit 0.58 million commuters on a daily basis.

He said that the Japan International Cooperation Agency was considering to provide soft-term loan on a mark up of 0.1 per cent repayable in 40 years, including 10-year grace period. The Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTS) had already been formed and registered with the Security Exchange Commission for implementation of the project, he said. The cost of land acquisition, compensation to project affected persons, GST, import duties and administrative cost would be borne by stakeholders, he said, explaining that the stakeholders with the equity shares were the Ministry of Railways 60 per cent, the Sindh government 25 per cent and KMC 15 per cent.After the detailed briefing by the transport secretary Taha Farooqui about the KCR project, its stakeholders and the progress made so far to remove obstacle for initiation its implementation, the chief minister directed transport secretary to explore other donors as well to start the project. “This is unacceptable that the project has been hanging in the balance since 2008,” he said, while directing his team to talk to local financial institutions and international agencies. “This cannot be delayed further,” he reiterated.

Additional Chief Secretary for Development Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch, Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi, Energy Secretary Agha Wasif, Sindh Engro Mining Company chairman and others also attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2016