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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.
Comments (19) Closed
I am, as a common Karachiite, still unable to fathom your intention!
Is it because of impending elections or are you undoing the bad name your regressive, corrupt, and incompetent party has earned in the eyes of your voters?
Whatever it is, you seem to be the man of action. I would love to vote for your party if you are able to convince your boss to relinquish the encroachment that your party has made upon local bodies system of Karachi.
Despite your all efforts we want to govern our city through local bodies system, not by the provincial government that has no political stakes in this city.
Good initiative by Sindh CM but we have saw a lot of feasibility reports on this project but please this this time we want implications and execution.
I hope that courts will act responsibly and quickly dispose of any plea from the encroachers of railway land. No more delays please
Lets see!God Knows what could happen to this plan and city.
I HOPE THIS LAND AFTER VACATION IS NOT ALLOCATED TO SOME PRIVATE BIG SHOT,
@KHALID YOUSAFZAI (UK) : Yes you can easily expect that from PPP and PML-N governments. I won't be surprised
A SUGGESTION: Karachi deserves 'Underground' transport system as is common in all major cities world over. It will be apparently a very expensive project specially the proximity to Arabian sea but it's worth probing with modern custom built design Between France and UK there is an example of passage under sea and there are many many examples. It will not only provide short cut transport to this cosmopolitan city but will render it beautiful. Let's give it a serious thought and make it viable. Rest assured this underground system will itself generate adequate revenue to sustain the investment
From: A citizen of Karachi
How could it be possible that 4,653 houses and 2,997 other establishments had been constructed on the encroached land without the blessings of the big-men at the helm?
so now money will be disbursed to the occupants of encroached lands, who will re-locate to some other areas where another project would be planned. In order to get that project going, they'll need to clear that land, money will be disbursed, and people will settle in another area. And on, and on..
Shady at best. Why is he not holding meeting with elected Mayor of Karachi!
Not just remove encroachments, determine the responsible officials, who were entrusted to look after the official lands, and punish them...
Karachi can never be a "world class city" without a metro train system. Some people will be forced to sacrifice. That's how life is. The city has the legal right to move private property off the route in exchange for a reasonable amount of money under the laws of public domain. Some areas must become public property for the good of all citizens.
"The senior Railways official said that around 20 per cent path of KCR is under encroachment". Only 20%? it is 100% under encroachments. If one sees the KCR railway tract, the encroachments are everywhere.
Metro or Underground system is highly essential for Karachi, the commercial capital of Pakistan with a population exceeding 30 Million. It should be designed as 'State of Art' logistic network beautifying this cosmopolitan city. One can envisage its aesthetic appeal to be compared with 'Tube' system of London. As for cost, within a few years of its commisioning the break even can be conveniently reached with its anticipated popularity as Mass Transit system Mr Chief Minister of Sindh! Sir please arrange for this gift to Karachites
Karachi is not a goth. Such populist sounding steps are not a substitute for substance. These are jobs of a metropolitan transport authority working under the mayor of a city, not the chief minister. Empower KMC and u can indeed be considered enlightened. Else Karachi will continue to rot.
All encroachments will be removed, except ones belonging to jayalas.
@Citizen Of karAchi Indeed!
@Ahsan.Our neighbour iran have very good underground metro system in tehran since more than 40 years.
Wow, Sindh government finally wakes, let's what transpires. Or it may be just another excuse to embezzle public funds.