KARACHI: Sindh Transport Minister Nasir Shah has directed the officials concerned to arrange for a survey of the Karachi Circular Railway route for a visiting Chinese team and provide its members with relevant data.

He was talking to the Chinese team, including Yin Gang, Yong Yin and Cuidong Tian, that called on him on Tuesday.

He told the team that the KCR was one of the major projects of the city that would resolve the transport issue of the metropolis to a great extent. He said as the KCR had also been included in the CPEC projects, the government would like to take advantage of the Chinese expertise in the implementation of the project.

Earlier, the Chinese team asked the minister to arrange for a visit and survey of the KCR route and that technical experts of the railways accompany them so that they could get instant information.

The visitors suggested that after the visit they would like to meet officials of the Pakistan Railways and other relevant persons to get more input about the project before they reached a decision regarding the project.

Mr Shah directed the officials concerned to arrange a detailed visit of the visitors with local experts of the KCR and also schedule a meeting between the Chinese team and local experts to further discuss the project.

He also asked the officials to provide relevant data regarding other transport projects, including the Brown Line, to the Chinese team so that they could also learn about it and see if it was of interest and if they would like to join in the implementation of the project.

He said that when all the transport-related projects were implemented, the transport issue of the city commuters would be resolved to a great extent.

Published in Dawn January 18th, 2017