KARACHI, May 13: The federal government has agreed to revive the Karachi Circular Railway and implement the mass transit programme, said a press release of the city government issued here on Saturday.

It said City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal on Saturday held a meeting with Federal Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed in his office in Islamabad that lasted for an hour. Federal Secretaryfor Railways Shakeel Durrani, Director-General of the Mass Transit Programme Malik Zaheerul Islam and other officers were present.

The city nazim briefed the federal minister on public transport problems of Karachi and especially the role of the KCR and the mass transit programme in lessening them. He said that to provide Karachiites better public transport facilities the revival of the KCR and the implementation of the mass transit programme were a must.

He said that delaying these projects would aggravate the public transport programme in Karachi. He said the patronage of the federal government was badly needed in this regard, especially practical steps by the Pakistan Railways to revive the KCR.

According to the CDGK press release, the federal minister agreed to these proposals and said he was aware of the public transport problem of Karachi. He said that only by complete revival of the KCR and the implementation of the mass transit programme this problem could be solved. He assured the city nazim that the federal government and especially the Railways Ministry would provide all-out assistance in this regard.

The press release claimed that the issue of the revival of the KCR got encouraging response in the meeting and both parties agreed that work would began on the revival of the KCR soon.—PPI