KARACHI, July 14: The Sindh government has, so far, spent more than Rs3 billion on studies of the Karachi Mass Transit Plan, but absolutely nothing concrete has come out of this.

Knowledgeable sources in the transport department said studies on the mass transit plan were being carried out for the past many years, but no work on the ground had been done so far.

At a recent high-level meeting with the Sindh government, the Director- General of the Karachi Mass Transit Cell, Zaheerul Islam, giving a brief presentation on the functions, setup, implementation and recommendation status of the KMTC, said Rs3.335bn had been spent on different studies of the mass transit plan since the establishment of the KMTC 1988.

“However, there is nothing on the ground for the implementation of the mass transit,” he told the meeting.

Since 1988, the sources said, the following studies had been carried out: the Karachi Mass Transit Study 1990; KMTS Priority Corridor 1, 1994; KMTS Priority Corridor 2, 1994; BOT Contract on Corridor 1, 1996; and KMTA/NMTA Implementation Plans 1997.

However, it could not be ascertained how much money was spent on the studies carried out on mass transit before 1988, such as the MRVP Masterplan 1952; Karachi Rapid Transit Study 1974; Karachi Transportation Masterplan 1985; and KCR Improvement Study (JARTS) 1990. The sources said millions of rupees were spent on these studies too.

They said the Sindh government had also spent billions of rupees on the construction of flyovers at several level-crossings to facilitate the operation of the Karachi Circular Railway, which had remained suspended since December 15, 1999.

The railway authorities had consistently been pressuring the Sindh government to abandon the KCR revival project, but the provincial government had made it clear to the railway authorities that it had spent more than Rs3bn on the construction of flyovers at level-crossings in Karachi besides it had provided other resources to help the railways to revive the circular railway’s operation, the sources said.