KARACHI, Jan 22: The Karachi Circular Railway project is not getting the attention that it deserves. This is the impression gathered from the slow pace of progress on the issue. The government has time and again said it wants to resolve the transport problem, that is a major issue for 14 million Karachiites daily, but few concrete steps have been taken.

The last development in the issue were two meetings held between the railways minister and the Sindh governor and chief minister about six weeks ago in which it was decided that the rehabilitation and restoration project would be implemented by the railways and after its completion be operated by the local or provincial government or any other agency.

Karachi is probably the only mega city in the world that does not have a mass transit system. The city had a population of 300,000in 1947 before Partition. It increased many fold and was approximately two million when the government established the Karachi Circular Railways (KCR) in 1964.

The project envisaged at the time was a 30-kilometre KCR loop – connecting Drigh Road, Gulistan-i-Jauher, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Nazimabad, SITE, Baldia, Kharadar, etc and Karachi City -- with 16 stations. It had 22 level crossings and seven bridges. The system worked satisfactorily till 1984. After that it could not maintain its standards and the trains started running late and people started to lose interest till it was eventually closed in 2000.

Many town planning experts suspect the transporters mafia played an important role in getting the KCR to close. Over the years the transport mafia has grown into a monster and now commuters are virtually held hostage by the transporters cartel. Whenever they want, the transporters revise fares upwards by threatening to or going on a wheel jam strikes, which cripples movement of people in the city.

With the passage of time as the population grown, so has the traffic on the roads and with public pressure mounting to do something, the government decided to restore the KCR.. A new and revitalised KCR costing $872 million is on the drawing board. Air conditioned electric trains would be started that would cover an enlarged loop of 50 kms and run at 80 kms after every 10 minutes during peak hours.

Approximately 50 MWs of electricity would be required to operate the trains – which will be environment friendly -- but keeping in view the perennial power shortage, the KCR will probably need its own power generation to ensure uninterrupted supply.

Under the plan a new 6 kilometre long underground line connecting Drigh Road to airport would be laid besides laying a dedicated 14-kilometre double track between Karachi City and Drigh Road. The existing 30-kilometre-long KRC route would also have a double track. The existing Old Keamari line could be extended to serve Clifton, one of the few recreational areas of the city visited by a large number of people daily.

At a later stage expansion of the network by laying new lines to Orangi Town, North Karachi, Sabzimandi, Korangi industrial as well as residential areas and steel mills is also planned.

All 22 level crossings would be replaced with under-passes or bridges and the KCR network integrated with the road transport with introduction of bus routes between KCR stations and other nearby areas so that people have easy access to the stations.

The people of Karachi using public transport under take around 15 million passenger trips (a person travelling in a bus from one place to an other place, when a passenger changes the bus it becomes another trip) per day and the KCR is planning to cater to around 500,000 (roughly 3 per cent of the total) passenger/trips a day. The ticket for the KCR trains is likely to be around Rs10.

Feasibility and other studies have been conducted by Japanese organisations and a Malaysian firm. The project is expected to be completed in three years once work starts.

The KCR revival will go a long way in bringing relief to commuters besides easing the congestion on the roads.