KARACHI, Aug 25: Sindh Transport Minister Adil Siddiqui has described revival of the entire Karachi Circular Railway network inevitable to overcome growing traffic problems.

He appreciated the prime minister’s decision of reviving the National Mass Transit Authority (NMTA) for streamlining the transport system on modern lines in eight major cities of Pakistan, including Karachi.

Talking to APP on his arrival here after attending the meeting of NMTA in Islamabad, Mr Siddiqui said that the NTMA had decided to operate circular railway, mono rail, tramway and light rail in eight big cities -- Karachi, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Multan, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Quetta – besides laying a separate track for circular railway in Karachi, between City Station to Drig Road.

In reply to a question, the minister said that both the governor and chief minister of Sindh had approved the Karachi Urban Transport Service (KUTS) and steps were being taken for registration of the same.

He said the entire circular railway system would be a computerised one as the present government was keen to see success of this system, to be run on a permanent basis.

Under the new system, he pointed out, the KCR’s operational scope would be expanded to Surjani, North Karachi, Jinnah Terminal, Gizri, Defence, Port Qasim and other new areas for which investment offers had been received from Germany, Japan and other countries.

One of the interested firms, JAICA, had offered an investment of $827 million, he said, adding that feasibility study had been completed whereby the company would complete this project in three phases. In the first phase, the network would be laid between City Station and Nazimabad, in the second phase between Nazimabad and Drig Road, and in the final phase the network would be expanded to airport and certain other areas.

The project also envisages reconstruction of KCR tracks, signals, stations and commercial centres as per the modern day requirements. For this purpose, Japan will extend a 30-year soft loan facility at 0.4 per cent mark-up, including a 10 year grace period.

In reply to another question, the transport minister pointed out that circular railway was again assuming importance as an alternative means of transport in this city of 15 million souls. He said the situation arising out of the recent rains was a testimony as a large number of people travelled through KCR due to the crippled road communication system.

Mr Siddiqui said that at present, there were more than 1.6 million vehicles plying on 8,500-km-long roads in city every day.

People had to spend hours to reach from one place to the other owing to the congestion and the only solution to this problem was a circular railway system.

It may be mentioned here that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had inaugurated the partially revived KCR network in March 2005 after eight years of complete closure. In the first phase, trains were operated between City Station and Landhi and the service was later extended up to Wazir Mansion at the one end and to Dhabeji at the other. Some 5,000 to 6,000 people travel through the revived service every day.—APP