KARACHI, Dec 12: The federal government has formally requested the Japanese government to keep a provision of over $872 million loan for the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway in the current financial year, it has been learnt reliably.

Sources told Dawn that the federal finance ministry’s economic affairs division, in its communication sent last week, urged Japan to give it a Special Terms for Economic Partnership (STEP) loan so that the long-standing transport problem of the commuters of its largest port city and financial hub could be solved. The sources said as the Japanese financial year started in April, so if the provision for the KCR loan was provided in it then it would be easier to put the project in the next budget of Pakistan as the financial year here started in July.

The sources said that earlier the loan had been supposed to be provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). However, a few weeks back the bank was merged into the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which now became the donor agency.

The $872 million soft loan is being provided at a 0.2 per cent mark-up and it is payable within 40 years with an initial 10-year grace period.

Responding to Dawn queries on Friday, the Managing Director of the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation, Ejaz Khilji, said that JICA’s deputy regional head of South East Asia, Mr Morikawa, who is based in Tokyo, had come to the city and had held a meeting with him on Dec 6 regarding the project. A Japanese team was also in the city to carry out various studies, he added.

Under the project a new around 50-kilometre-long double railway track would be laid and 31 stations would be re-constructed, many of these at the new locations near the road intersections, etc so that commuters could easily change local trains and the road transport. A six-kilometre-long new section between the Drigh Road station and the airport’s Jinnah Terminal would also be laid. As many as 247 electricity-powered trains, each having a carrying capacity of over 1,600 passengers, would be plying on the dedicated tracks at an average speed of over 60 kilometres per hour. Time period between two trains would be five to six minutes.

The sources said that Karachi was probably the only mega city with a population of over 12 million that did not have a mass transit system and the commuters were left at the mercy of largely unregulated transporters.

The circular railway was established in the city in 1964 and its 30-kilometre loop had 22 level-crossings and seven bridges and it worked satisfactorily till 1984. But with the emergence of alternative modes of transport and low priority given to the KCR by bureaucrats, allegedly under the influence of transporters, it started to deteriorate and eventually it was wrapped up in 2000. However, now with the increased road transport, all the 22 level-crossings would be replaced either with bridges or underpasses.