Federal Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique on Friday said that Pakistan would request China to include the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) in CPEC project. Speaking at a press briefing at the City Railway Station, the minister said that the Sindh Government and PR had constituted an 8-member joint working group which would prepare terms of references (TORs) to determine responsibilities/ authorities of the both provincial government and the railway regarding execution of the project.
"Even though we are late now, we shall try to persuade China to include the KCR in the multi-billion dollars project." he said, adding that the government was also considering alternative solutions including investment options in case China refused to do so.
Saad Rafiq said he had a fruitful meeting where they agreed to revive the much-delayed KCR. He said they constituted joint group, giving it a task to prepare master plan in the shortest possible time. Divisional Superintendent, Chief Engineer and Chief Marketing Engineers would represent the railways in that group.
He said the provincial government would play a leading role in the project whereas Railway would provide its land alongside technical expertise. "We have to ensure proper relocation of the people to be affected by the KCR project. They have to be given reasonable compensation. The encroachers will also be removed," he said.
The minister said that by the January 2017, Pakistan Railway would begin operating a train service to transport imported coal from Port Qasim to Sahiwal wherein a coal-based power project was underway. In this connection, a shipment of locomotives (4000hp) would reach Karachi from the US. He said initially, they were operating a single train with some 40 bogies daily however target was to run 5 trains each day. With this, PR would be able to earn Rs 6 billion annual profit as he set Rs 40 billion income target by the end of June 2017.
He also announced upgrading the Karachi-bound Express Train till 2017 to help improve the financial position of the country's oldest public entity besides providing cheap and comfortable travel service to thousands of commuters. PR is also upgrading some 11 stations. With consultation of labor unions, he said the PR was to finalise its service structure till the next year.