The Japanese government has held talks with officials of Sindh provincial government for the revival of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project to address transport problems of people in Karachi. "We visited Karachi last week and held talks with the Sindh government officials for revival of KCR project", Japan's Economic and Development Counsellor in Pakistan, Takashi Harada said on Tuesday.
Talking to APP here, he said, "Japanese government is ready to fund the revival of Karachi Circular Railways (KCR) project in the port city." Takashi Harada said that his government is positive to support and finance this project. "We are discussing relocation of people with the government of Sindh province," he said and added, "We need mega support and mega facilitation from the concerned departments for carrying out this project." It may be mentioned here that making operational the KCR would help in mitigating the sufferings of millions of Karachi commuters as there is huge demand of urban transport in the mega city of Pakistan.
The Railway ministry has allocated 250 acres of land to shift all encroachments from the route of KCR and resettle the squatters on this land. The revival of KCR would be a gift for Karachites by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). This may be noted that the KCR has a total route length of 43.24 km out of which 15.68 km is on ground, 23.86km elevated and 2.28km in trench with a 1.42km bridge in between. The total number of stations would be 24 including 10 on ground, 12 elevated and 2 trench stations. The system would use electric powered trains. The project will be run by Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC) as a public private partnership project under technical assistance from JICA.
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