KARACHI: In compliance with the Supreme Court orders, the city administration is making all-out efforts to launch the 44-kilometre Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and expedite progress of the work being carried out for the launch of the KCR with the coordination of Pakistan Railways, all other stakeholders and the departments concerned.

Official sources said on Sunday that a meeting was held in this regard under the chairmanship of Commissioner of Karachi Iftikhar Shallwani at his office which reviewed the progress on the project and took various decisions to get the hurdles in the way of launch of the circular railway removed.

They said it was also decided in the meeting that work on laying a 14-kilometre track from Karachi City to Orangi Town would be completed with the railway stations located along the route within two months so that the trial for running the train could be undertaken before the launch of the KCR project.

Divisional superintendent of Pakistan Railways Arshad Salam Khattak briefed the commissioner on the progress, explaining the steps being taken for the revival of the project.

The meeting decided that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) would carry out the work of improvement of sewerage infrastructure on a priority basis, which is one of the hurdles in the way of completion of the project.

Managing director of the KWSB Asadullah Khan assured the meeting that the water board would comply with the decisions of the meeting to under take the work of improving the infrastructure.

An official of the provincial Planning and Development Department briefed the meeting on the work of fencing to be undertaken along both sides of the route, explaining that the planning and tendering process of the work had been completed and “hopefully” the fencing work would be started next week.

The meeting was attended among others by DIG for Security Maqsood Ahmed, Chief Engineer of Pakistan Railways Ameer Mohammad Daudpota, additional deputy commissioners of different districts, officials of the Sindh Buildings Control Authority and the Transport Department.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2020