KARACHI, Oct 4: The city government and Pakistan Railways have reached an agreement to jointly revive the Karachi Circular Railway, which would be an integral part of the Karachi Rail Based Mass Transit System on priority corridor-I.

This was stated by Karachi’s Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, at a press conference on Saturday in the old KMC building. Under the agreement — signed by the General Manager of Pakistan Railways on behalf of the federal government, Sindh chief secretary and the nazim of Karachi — a board will be formed soon which shall oversee and provide policy guidelines for the revival of the KCR project.

The board will be chaired by the governor of Sindh or its chief minister. The provincial chief secretary will be its secretary and a representative of the federal railways ministry and city nazim will be its other members.

A team comprising Sindh’s chief secretary, general manager (nominee) of the ministry of railways and the city nazim will be notified as the steering committee which shall work on permanent footings to deal with all issues relating to the KCR and monitor the periodical progress to ensure the completion of the works in line with the agreed terms and conditions.

A project implementation committee will also be notified which will be headed by a nominee of the ministry of railways. This committee will consist of nominees of the city government as well as railways ministry. The names of the persons manning this committee will be decided with mutual consent.

About the implementation programme, Mr Khan said the project would be undertaken jointly by the ministry of railways and city government. The ministry of railways would prepare a comprehensive plan covering the entire city, including the areas still not served by the KCR. The ministry would also prepare the budget.

The execution of the project would be undertaken in phases as per the agreement. A design institute might be set up in Karachi to carry out the planning, designing and budgeting work. The institute will acquire the services of local as well as foreign experts.

Mr Khan said the money for the establishment of the institute, including capital running cost, would come from the funds provided by the federal government. The operator of the KCR shall be selected through a competitive and transparent manner by the committee from the private sector.

The city government agreed with the commercialization of space at the KCR’s various stations, he said. The income would be used by the KCR’s operator to meet the shortfall in its revenues for operating the system. The provision of investment shall be the responsibility of the operator, he added.

The Sindh and city governments would provide full support to the ministry of railways for removal of encroachments. Mr Khan said the federal government might be requested to provide the entire amount needed for the KCR’s infrastructure, improvement including replacement of level crossings with bridges, flyovers and underpasses, presently estimated at Rs5 billion.

He said the ministry of railways, which had already negotiated with a Chinese company for preparation of a feasibility report and funding of the same on suppliers/buyers credit on easy terms and on such interest rates as are prevailing in the international market. The steering committee would conduct further negotiations with the Chinese company or donor agencies.

Mr Khan said the city government agreed to use the land provided to Pakistan Railways by the defunct KMC and the city government in the past. The land which was now given for the project and the land provided for the KCR earlier shall now remain the property of the city government Karachi.

He said the agreement was reached after frequent meetings between officials of the railways and Sindh and city governments.