KARACHI, Sept 27: Revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) should be undertaken as an integral part of the overall mass transit system on a multi-model concept under the jurisdiction of the city government.

This was recommended at the concluding session of a seminar on “Karachi rail based mass transit system in global context”, organized jointly by The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Pakistan and the city government at FTC auditorium on Saturday.

It was also suggested that the city government should be allowed to take necessary steps for the use of dedicated land to the KCR revival and its operation.

Several other recommendations were also made at the seminar, which included local capability to fabricate vehicles, planning of infrastructure and human resources in advance to minimize the cost of construction, operation and maintenance.

Mass transit programme of Karachi should be made an integral part of the overall city master plan, as transportation and land are inter-linked. Moreover, it was proposed that the share of the provincial and city governments in road user charges, imposed and collected by the federal government, should be increased as the share at present was very small.

It was also suggested that the conditions imposed by the Board of Investment with special reference to equity participation in total cost of the mega mass transit project should be relaxed. Concessions should be granted in duties on imported items relating to mass transportation projects in line with the precedent of similar projects.

The government should review its policy for providing sureties/ guarantees to encourage foreign investment in mass transit and transport related projects. Companies operating on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis in the field of mass transit should be provided relief in taxes and duties.

Well tested and proven technologies should be selected and power supply must be planned in advance, unless independent power generation is included in the project. It is essential to connect the power generation system to natural grid in order to have optimum utilization of generating facilities. A network of environment friendly mass transit lines and feeder services should also be carefully planned to satisfy the travel demand (with minimum walk).

Acting governor Muzaffar Ali Shah said that sincere efforts were necessary to develop a mass transit without any delay. He assured the city government of every possible cooperation and support in this respect by the provincial government.

The administrator of the Karachi Public Transport and Social Education Society (KPTS), Shamsuddin Abro, presented a detail overview of the KPTS formation and its performance during the last six years. However, he observed that despite the better performance of the KPTS, its advancement was impeded and obstructed. He said that personal rivalries and “leg-pulling” by certain quarters had a negative impact on its performance.

He termed the introduction of Urban Transport Scheme by the city transport and communication department “unjustified”. Despite the passage of more than 12 months, no tangible progress had been made by the new scheme, he maintained.

“This has also caused confusion among potential investors and divided transporters’ community,” he said.

Mr Abro suggested that the ‘duality factor’ should be done away with, as the KPTS and UTS were pursuing the same objective. Transport training institute should be revived under the KPTS, he added.

He concluded with remarks: “Let it be recognized that revolutionary steps are required to streamline the public transport system as the present mechanism has failed to respond to the growing needs of commuters.”

Director General Karachi Mass Transit (KMT) Cell Malik Zaheerul Islam gave a detailed presentation citing examples of rail based mass transit systems being experienced in Beijing, Singapore, Kuala Lampur, and Manila. He also cited the instance of New Delhi, where phase-I of the metro system would be completed by Sept 2005. He stressed the need for making sincere efforts to develop a mass transit system in Karachi.

Referring to the KMT study and projection, he said the population of Karachi would grow to 21 million by the year 2010. The city would grow larger with longer distance travel, he added. Motorcycles and cars were already increasing at the rate of eight to 10 per cent per annum. Their share in overall vehicular population in Karachi was over 82 per cent.

He said that the traffic volume on M.A. Jinnah road at its busiest section (Old Numaish to Tibet Centre) during peak hours had reached over 40,000 phpd. More than 60 per cent or about 25,000 commuters per hour per direction were using buses, minibuses and coaches. If the present trend continued, roads would be required to be widened twice to meet the demand, he added.

On the contrary, he asserted that if a rail based transit system supplemented with large buses was introduced here, roads would have a lot of reserve capacity to cater the future traffic demand.

Deputy Director KMTC Mirza Anwar Baig presented an overview of inter-city bus terminal facilities in Peshawar, Faisalabad, Lahore, and Rawalpindi. He was of the view that bus terminal of private operators running under political and bureaucratic support was creating traffic problems for the cities and curtailing income of the government owned bus terminal.

He suggested that with some modifications, ex-KTC Model and Orangi depots could be used as bus terminals in line with experience of Peshawar bus terminal. After the completion of the modern bus terminal in Punjab on BOT basis, the experience might be followed in Karachi.

City Nazim Naimatullah Khan said that a rail based transport system could be made successful in Karachi like in other major cities of the world. He said that the city government had been facing opposition to the rail based transport system from certain quarters. However, he claimed that he was committed to implement the modern transport system.

He said that six major companies had been issued the letter of intents (LoI) for investment in the system.

About revival of the KCR, he said, “We have heard about negotiations between Pakistan Railways and a company in China. As the KCR is the matter of the city government, it is the prerogative right of the city government to negotiate with a company willing to revive the KCR operation.”

He was of the view that there was no problem of law and order in Karachi, but a negative propaganda was being carried out. “If Karachi would progress the entire country would flourish as it is the hub of economic activities,” he maintained.

Honorary consultant to city government S.M. Rizvi, Anwar Hussain, Mohammad Ali Safir and others also spoke at the seminar.