The ambitious agreement the City District Government Karachi signed with China National Machinery and Equipment Group (CNMEG) last Friday for construction of Corridor-1 of light rail based Mass Transit Project, seems to have been inspired by the urge to put an end to the otherwise unhampered jungle-like growth of the public transport system since the very early years of economic development from a thoughtless approach.
Not only the traffic problems were neglected in the past but the development of the metropolitan model of the mass transit system appeared to have been deliberately blocked.
Salient features of the light rail project were disclosed by the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan after signing the agreement. It is estimated to cost $568 million and is marked for completion in four and a half years.
Spread over a total length of 15.2 km from Sohrab Goth to Mereweather Tower, the project consists of both elevated and underground patterns.
While the 8 km route - from Sohrab Goth to Teen Hatti - will have the elevated pattern, the remaining 7.2 km of it, that is, from Teen Hatti to Tower, will be underground.
The idea is, initially, to facilitate about 0.4 million commuters with a fast, efficient and economical transport service, which would be subsequently expanded to benefit one million commuters.
Viewed in the perspective of the MoU it recently signed on restoration of tramway with a Saudi firm, the new project will point to the City Government's determination to bring back to the city what had been deliberately destroyed or to redo in parts what had been nipped in the past.
It may be recalled that a massive, all-encompassing Karachi Mass Transit Scheme was launched by Prime Minister Benazir's government.
Then widely welcomed as the right approach towards dissolving Karachi's notorious traffic jams, all was set for implementation of the scheme with Canadian assistance, under a joint venture with the House of Adamjees with external credit backed by a guarantee from the government of Pakistan.
But it was just quietly given up. From all indications, had it not been for the ouster of Benazir Bhutto and her replacement by Mian Nawaz Sharif, the mass transit system would have been operational by now.
As Karachites' ill-luck would have it, whatever hope for the revival of the project had later emerged on General Pervez Musharraf's coming to power in 1999, with a commitment to rebuild the economy on sound footing, was dashed evidently, due to his reluctance to renew the government guarantee. Eventually, the project was abandoned.
Now CDGK has been trying in its own way to implement parts of the project here and there. As the City Nazim pointed out, the complete Mass Transit Project would comprise five corridors and that in the event of the first corridor proving successful, the contract for the second one could also go to the same Chinese firm building the first on BOT basis.
As for its financing, of the total amount of $568 million, 90 percent would be invested by the Chinese firm, while the remaining 10 percent would be arranged by CDGK.
It will, however, be noted that humble though in its size, CDGK's contribution will be part of a grand effort, which would deserve every possible help from the Federal Government to address the problem of paucity of resources.
Some idea of what the Federal Government can do may be had from reference to Thailand's example.
For late last year the Thai government was reported to be studying plans to sell mutual funds worth $2.5-$5 billion to finance mass transit schemes to tackle Bangkok's traffic jams.
Another possible way to tackle the problem of choked road network of Karachi is the revival of the circular railway by Pakistan Railways.
There are two related options to use the railway corridor: (a) Converting it into a tramway system and (b) Paving it for a bus service to run.
Offers from the private sector are available which need to be examined expeditiously giving due weightage to the effect on pollution in the city and improving the quality of environment.
Comments
Comments are closed.