Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday ordered concerns authorities to remove encroachments to clear the route of Karachi Circular Railways (KCR).

Presiding over a meeting on KCR at the New Secretariat, he also approved an amount of Rs45 million for preparing feasibility of the project.

The project has recently been included in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Provincial Transport Minister Nasir Shah briefed the chief minister on the project and said that the KCR project has total length of 43 kilometres, of which 13.43 kilometres are shared with the main railway line and 29.69 km on the KCR loop.

He informed the meeting that he found encroachments along the route.

DS Railways Karachi Nisar Memon said that the total land required for KCR project is 360 acres, of which 260 acres belong to Pakistan Railways and 100 acres are on main line.

He added that the area under encroachment is 67 acres, including 47 acres on the KCR loop and 20 acres on the main line. He said that 4,653 houses and 2,997 other establishments had been constructed on the encroached land.

The senior Railways official said that around 20 per cent path of KCR is under encroachment. The project can only be implemented if encroachments are removed from its route.

The chief minister directed Commissioner Karachi Aijaz Khan to hold a meeting with all the deputy commissioners and work out a plan to remove encroachments from the KCR route and submit report with in seven days.

He also directed the finance secretary to release Rs45 million for conducting feasibility of KCR project. Shah said that the feasibility of KCR has to be submitted in JCC for taking it in CPEC projects.

The chief minister directed ACS (Dev) Mohammad Waseem to coordinate with federal government for issuing sovereign guarantee.