Any further delay in completion of the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) study for rehabilitation of the affectees of $1.58 billion Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project would provide a fascinating opportunity to land grabbers to encroach more public land.
According to sources, besides the chances of more encroachments on the land of KCR, the cost of the project, which has already been revised upward, would increase further if the study was not completed in the stipulated time.
They said that soon after the approval of the project by Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) further encroachment has started on the land along the KCR's route; hence giving the land grabbers an opportunity to have alternate lands from the government.
Though it is not yet clear that where the affected people would be settled as different locations in the city are being considered for the purpose and no specific location has so far been finalised.
The sources claimed that the concerned officials have also demarcated the land along the railway line, the width of which has been widened more than the range of right of way, to blackmail those who were living outside the limit of the government's land.
The appropriate distance from the tracks to the built-up area should be between 25 to 30 feet. According to the sources over 15000 houses would be demolished for the project and occupants of the would be affected houses are expected to be compensated. The project will affect 40,000 to 45,000 people in terms of resettlement and relocation, they added.
According to a survey conducted by Urban Resource Centre (URC) in 2005 commercial plazas, multi-storied residential apartments, bungalows, institutional buildings, shopping centers, factories, warehouses and petrol pumps have been built on 72 percent of the area on either side of the KCR tracks.
The remaining 28 per cent of the area on either side of the KCR tracks is occupied by low-income settlements and Katchi Abadis. Along the mainline from City to Landhi stations, the built-up area is at an average distance of about 20 to 60 feet from the tracks. Along the circular tracks the distance is from 15 to 40 feet.
However, the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC), the proponent of KCR project, in its recent progress report of Revival of KCR Project, claimed that the 80 percent work of Preliminary Public Consultation Meetings and Information Disclosure, Demarcation Survey, socio-economic survey, satellite imagery, and allocation of land for resettlement sites has been completed. It had also claimed that the final report from SUPARCO regarding the satellite image of the KCR route would obtained in the second week of this month.
Only 15 percent works, it said, had been completed so far regarding the validation of SAPROF report. According to the report the demarcation of boundary as per the land plan and marking on main line has been completed while the work at Umar Colony and Sindhi Muslim colony was to be completed in October 2009.
The report said that identification mark on squatters/ houses between Departure Yard to Karachi City on main line was in progress completing 4065 forms while the rest of works would be furnished in the next month. As per the details of the project, as a first parameter, the KCR's 30-km loop would be would dualised with modern signalling and telecommunication system.