Railways IG directed to remove encroachments

Senate standing committee on railways reviews project on two-day visit to Karachi

KARACHI: The Senate standing committee on railway directed on Tuesday the Railways inspector-general to remove the encroachments along the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) track.

During their visit on Monday, the chairperson of the standing committee, Sardar Fateh Mohammad Hassani, expressed his pleasure on including the KCR project in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). However, he along with other members of the committee, was dismayed over the encroachments on KCR.

Before the media, the members of the committee visited City Railway station and Wazir Mansion in order to review the circular railway's tracks. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Taj Haider, Karachi and Sukkur Railways divisional engineers were also present on the occasion.

The Senate committee is on a two-day visit to Karachi and its members will also review the Landhi tracks today (Wednesday).

"Today, we have reviewed the tracks from Wazir Mansion to Cantt Station and will visit rest of the area today," said Hassani, who belongs to the PPP.

Giving credit of this project to the Sindh government, he said, "It was the incumbent chief minister's efforts due to which this project has been included in CPEC". He added that there were a few minor hurdles, but the project will be started soon.



He said the federal government is also sincere to the project and strict action would be taken against those who have illegally occupied the railway tracks.

Earlier, the committee held a meeting at the Karachi City Station where they reviewed various aspects of the project. Among others, senators who attended the meeting included Haider, Mohammad Javed Abbasi, Hafi Hamadullah and Nasreen Jalil.

The Karachi Railways director-general briefed the meeting about this project.



"A follow-up meeting on this issue will be held on January 23 in Islamabad where the Sindh chief secretary and other concerned officials would be invited," an official privy to the development told The Express Tribune.

Meanwhile, Haider said that the Sindh government was supposed to start the development work on the project on December 25 last year, but it could not do it because of unavoidable circumstances.