ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development on Monday gave 15 days to Pakistan Railways and the Sindh government to resolve key issues for the revival of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) so that its first phase could be launched on Dec 25.

After a briefing by officers of the Sindh government and Railways, chairman of the Committee retired Col Tahir Hussain Mashhadi deplored the red tape for causing delays.

“The main problem is that you seniors consider only those people as good officers who can find lacunas in files and delay the matter, but in fact such persons are bad officers as they distract from the target,” Mr Mashhadi said.

Commenting on the importance of KCR, he said: “Do the officers know how many people will benefit [from] this project?”

First phase from Manghopir to Wazir Mansion due to be launched on Dec 25

The committee was informed that the key impediment in the revival of the KCR was granting ‘right of way’ by the Railways for the project, whereas a committee formed in this regard comprising officials of Railways and the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC), has never met.

Officials of the Sindh government told the committee that the KUTC had been formed to implement the project.

Taking note of the delay, Mr Mashhadi directed to resolve key matters between Railways and the KUTC in 15 days.

“If you people fail to move ahead we will call the Railways minister in the next meeting so that he may answer on your behalf,” he said.

Later talking to media, Mr Mashhadi said: “If there was further delay we will seek a joint meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning so that the first phase of KCR becomes operational by Dec 25 this year.”

While the major part of financing would be provided by China, the only hurdle in the project was our bureaucracy, he added.

The first phase of the project was in district South of Karachi from Manghopir to Wazir Mansion.

Project details

The project to revive the KCR includes construction of 24 stations and procurement of 162 locomotives each with a capacity of 250 passengers. The project is expected to serve the commuting needs of 515,000 passengers per day. It is projected to be completed in three years.

Senators Mohsin Leghari, Sherry Rehman, Sirajul Haq and Agha Shahzain Durrani attended the meeting.

Coal power project

The committee was also informed that brand new and environment-friendly machinery with critical technology had been installed at the Sahiwal Coal Power Project to ensure best results from the project.

Briefing the committee on the project, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Musaddiq Ahmed Khan said the project was launched under the country’s power policy which does not allow anybody to install any used or obsolete technology.

He informed the meeting that both units of the plant were operating successfully and were fully contributing to the national grid.

The additional secretary said the 1,320MW project was established under the CPEC umbrella, and was based on Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

He said the plant would produce 9,039 GWh (9,039 billion units) electricity annually, and it would require 3.1 million tonnes of imported coal at a cost of $434m.

He said currently the coal was being imported from South Africa, Australia, and Indonesia, however, once coal from Thar is available, the Indonesian coal would not be imported as its efficiency was same as that of Thar coal.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2017