Senate body gives directives for KCR groundbreaking by Dec 25

Right of way and encroachments are delaying the railway project

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reform has directed the Ministry of Railways and Sindh to make every effort to ensure groundbreaking of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project by December 25 this year with a warning that any unnecessary delay will not be tolerated.

Presiding over a meeting on Monday, Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi said, “This is a very important project as all institutions are on board; moreover, the project has also been included in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Why is there unnecessary delay?”



He directed the authorities concerned to arrange a meeting of the two committees working under the Federal Ministry of Railways and the Sindh government to discuss the right of way and encroachment issue and send recommendations to the Senate committee within 15 days.

Railways Director General Planning Mazhar Ali Shah informed the committee that feasibility report and PC-1 of the project had already been approved but the framework agreement and award of commercial contract had not yet been agreed.

Hence, ground-breaking of the project by December 25, 2017 seemed to be an ambitious target, he added.

Responding to this, Senator Sherry Rehman expressed dissatisfaction over the railways ministry’s progress, saying if there was a will to ensure ground-breaking by the set date, then all issues could be resolved within 48 hours.

Briefing the committee about the project, Sindh Transport Secretary Saeed Awan said work on clearing of encroachments standing in the way of KCR was stopped due to some unknown reasons. He said the project costing $1.9 billion was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) in its meeting held on October 6, 2017.

Earlier discussing the Sahiwal Coal Power Plant, the meeting was informed that both units of the plant were operating successfully and were fully contributing to the national grid.



Additional Secretary Ministry of Energy Musaddiq Ahmed Khan told the committee that the 1,320-megawatt power plant would produce 9,039 gigawatt-hours (9,039 billion units) of electricity annually and it would require 3.1 million tons of imported coal annually at a cost of $434 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2017.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.