KARACHI, March 4: Work on the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) is expected to begin by June with the whole system to be revamped at a cost of Rs5 billion.

This was announced by Railways Minister Ghous Bux Khan Mahar while speaking as the chief guest at a cash award distribution ceremony for police officers and constables who busted a gang of dacoits which had looted passengers of the Lahore-bound Tezgam on May 8 last year near Sukkur.

On the occasion, the minister also formally inaugurated the air-conditioned computerized reservation office at the Cantonment Station. The ceremony was attended, among others, by Dr Farooq Sattar, MNA; Naib Nazim of Karachi Tariq Hasan, Sindh IG Syed Kamal Shah, Additional General Manager (Passenger) of Railways Iqbal Khatri, Chief Engineer of Railways Abdul Wahab Awan and Railways IG Ahmed Naseem.

"The work on KCR revival project will come on ground in June this year for which Rs5 billion has been budgeted," said Mr Mahar, adding that in the first phase work would be done on system improvement and on expansion it would be carried out in the second phase.

He pointed out that the project was a focal point of attention for the governor and the chief minister of Sindh and the city government, too, was seized with the efforts to introduce the mass transit system.

Ghous Bux Mahar said the present government, on the directive of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, was making all-out efforts to bring improvement in railways services.

Next week, he said, the prime minister was going to have a briefing on railways affairs at the Railways Headquarters in Lahore.

The federal minister said that with the personal attention of President Pervez Musharraf, a new life had been injected into the railway's dead body whereby new railway locomotives and coaches were being inducted while new wagons were also arriving to improve the freight services.

He recalled the days when a decision had been taken to sell out the railways in which no funds were injected for almost 25-30 years, the rolling stock had grown old and officers had turned inefficient. The President paid attention to this dying horse and took steps for its revival.

Mr Mahar said the Pakistan Railways would be brought at par with world class railways. He said with great efforts, the black marketing of tickets had stopped but ticketless travelling was still going which was to be controlled.

He said the computerization of tickets had controlled the black marketing of tickers and soon digital display boards would also be installed showing the seat availability position in trains.

The minister told the gathering that the new China-made coaches had been attached to the Karakoram and Jaffer Express trains and now the first five locally-manufactured coaches with Chinese collaboration would be rolling out from the Islamabad carriage factory on Friday. He said these coaches would be attached to the Karakoram and Jaffer express trains.

He said a new signal system was also being acquired which would help trains to move even in foggy conditions. Mr Mahar said that work on doubling of railway tracks between Lodhran and Khanewal was in hand, and in June work would begin between Khanewal and Lahore.

Referring to distribution of cash awards among officers and jawans of the Sindh and Railways police, Ghous Bux Mahar said the amount given was nothing for the lives which they laid down in the discharge of their duties.

He said hard work always paid and if they would continued to perform their duties like this, they would get recognition both from the government and the people. Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Sindh IG Syed Kamal Shah said that if the police's good performance was recognised and encouraged, this would help improve the force's performance.

He referred to highly complicated and sensitive cases of terrorism and sectarian killings resolved by the Sindh and Karachi police which had continued for many years, and their leading chiefs who belonged to various extremist organizations were apprehended.

He said at present there were over 140 such culprits lodged in Karachi and Hyderabad jails out of whom 39 had been awarded death or life terms. He said the elimination of such a large number of criminals in a period of less than two years was not an easy task.

The IGP said that Karachi was an international city which had given so much to the people of whole Pakistan. "We are really indebted to this city and we feel that any amount of work done for giving it peace and tranquillity will not be too much".

He admitted that there existed deficiencies in the police force which did have black sheep as well. "But we have to make them accountable." Railways IG Ahmed Nasim said the Tezgam dacoity case was professionally resolved by the Sukkur and Railways police.

He said that to prevent repetition of such incidents, new recruitment had been made in the railways police on merit. He said the new recruits had been trained by retired army personnel and they had now been deployed at various mail and express trains.

The Railways IG said that no case of dacoity and robbery in railways trains had been reported during the last 10 months. He said the Railways police had established Help centres, initially at the divisional headquarters level.

He also enumerated the performance of railways police which, he said, had been instrumental in the return of some 150 boys and girls, who fled their homes, to their parents.

Additional General Manager (Passenger) Iqbal Khatri said that 16 mail and express trains had been computerized while two more trains, Khyber Mail and Tezrao, would be computerized in the next few days.

He said computerized ticketing system would also be introduced at Rohri, Sukkur and Sialkot in a few days. Mr Khatri said that with the provision of improved facilities, the railway's passenger income had also registered an in crease. It rose from Rs7 billion last year to Rs7.5 billion this year.

According to him, a maximum number of air conditioned coaches were being attached with trains for better travelling facilities. The AGM (passenger) said that some 90,000 passengers travelled through the railways daily and this number would cross the 0.1 million mark within a year.

He pointed out that just within 2 years, the railways introduced 10 new trains on its network besides the operation of inter-city trains. He disclosed that two more new trains would be introduced in the next few months.

Earlier, in his welcome address the DS Railways, Karachi Division, Israr Alvi, said that besides distribution of cash awards among police officials, a newly-constructed computerized railways reservation office was also being formally inaugurated today.

He pointed out that the City Station reservation office with 23 counters was unable to meet the requirement of intending travellers and people were faced with many problems.

He said the new reservation office with modern facilities had been completed in a year at a cost of Rs18 million. This reservation office, he said, comprised lower and upper class reservation sections. The lower reservation section has 30 counters and the upper section 15 counters.

He said now a passenger could get his seat reserved in just 2-3 minutes. The office would be functional from 8am to 8pm. He said that some 15,000 people travelled out of Karachi through the railways and some 5,000 visited the reservation office daily.

Mr Alvi said Karachi had been inter-linked through computer with major railway stations and now a passenger could also get reservation for return seat. Later, the Railways minister handed over cheques and commendation certificates to police officers and constables and also formally inaugurated the new reservation office by unveiling the plaque.

He went round the upper and lower sections of the reservation office and saw its working. He made queries to personnel manning the booking counters. - APP