KARACHI, April 16: Owing to huge losses and unsafe conditions Pakistan Railways (PR) took over charge of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), operated by private sector since March 2005. After the takeover, PR has also cut the number of local trains from 10 to eight.

Sources in PR said that action was taken after a detailed report was submitted by vigilance department, which claims PR bore Rs52.8 million losses during the period between March 2005 and August 2006 in KCR operations.

Private contractor of KCR was also bound to perform maintenance of coaches, but the condition of coaches has gone from bad to worse during two years, as not a single rupee was spent on maintenance of coaches.

The report claimed that Rs30 million is the yearly operational cost of KCR operations, but one-year contract was awarded to M/s Mass Transit on March 2005 against Rs3.6 million and again on March 2006 one-year contract was awarded to M/s C Gram against Rs4.7 million.

The report also advised PR authorities to hold an inquiry to gauge the facts, because PR officials were allegedly involved in causing losses to the government for two years.

However PR authorities directed its Karachi Division office to take charge of KCR operations. The new contract will not be awarded to anyone till further orders.

The one-year contract period of M/s C Gram has already ended in March 2007.

PR, after taking over charge, closed the Wazir Mansion to Dhabeji route where two trains operated daily.

Syed Hasan Tahir Bukhari, Divisional Commercial Officer of Karachi Division said that the earning of first 15 days are encouraging and claimed that through KCR operations, PR will earn about Rs0.6 million a month.

He said the closure of the Wazir Mansion-Dhabeji route also reduced the costs of KCR operations and added that the route was used mostly by railway employees who obviously did not buy tickets.

Some citizens criticized the decision of cutting the number of local trains saying that on March 2005, when the prime minister inaugurated the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) operation, he assured that the number of trains would be increased gradually, but PR authorities, on the contrary, cut the number of trains.—PPI