KARACHI: A comprehensive action plan should be prepared to remove the encroachments from the tracks and along the route of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR).

This decision was taken at the first meeting of the KCR Task Force formed to remove the encroachments as well as to coordinate with different stakeholders so hitches, if any, present in the implementation of the project could be removed.

The task force, headed by the Karachi commissioner, comprises the divisional superintendent of Pakistan Railways, the deputy inspector general of Karachi, all deputy commissioners, director general of the Karachi Development Authority, municipal commissioners of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and all district municipal corporations, the managing director of the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation and the director general of the Urban Transport Corporation.

KCR project cost has over the years ballooned from $650 million to $2 billion

The commissioner, who chaired the meeting, directed the deputy commissioners to prepare a comprehensive plan for the removal of all encroachments from the route of the KCR. He told the meeting that legal action would also be initiated against the encroachers and no compensation would be paid to those encroachers who had set up their shops and/or were carrying out any other business on the encroached land. However, sympathetic consideration would be given while dealing with cases involving “deserving affectees”.

He said the KCR was one of the most important projects for the city that would provide relief to the commuters and the government was making efforts so that the implementation work on the project could be started soon.

The revival of the KCR has been in the news for the past many years. Initially the cost of the 43-kilometre-long KCR project was around $650 million, which over the years has been escalating and the current figure is almost $2 billion. The project is expected to be completed in three years after physical work on it starts.

Earlier, Japan had been involved in planning and implementation of the project, but after spending considerable time and resources the Japanese organisation concerned distanced itself from the project.

Now the KCR, according to Sindh Transport Minister Nasir Shah, has been brought under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor umbrella and would be implemented by a Chinese company selected from the three Chinese companies to be suggested by the government of the People’s Republic.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018