No money, no infrastructure : KCR revival plans hit yet another hurdle

There is yet to be an agreement on who will actually build the expensive railway line

KARACHI:

The Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project is no stranger to hitting snags and it seems to have hit another one as the federal government and Sindh government deliberate over who will fund its revival. First closed back in 1999, several attempts have been made in the past two decades to restart the KCR so it could solve Karachi’s transport problems.

However, most of those attempts proved to be futile and only when the Supreme Court (SC) stepped in, back in 2020, was the KCR partially revived by Pakistan Railways.In light of the SC’s orders, the federal government started development work on the KCR by removing 24 railway crossings on its track and starting construction work on underpasses and flyovers. However, the project seems to have come to a stuttering halt again. A senior official part of the KCR revival project, revealed to the Express Tribune, under the condition of anonymity, that the mammoth costs were the reason for the halt. “Only the first phase, which involves civil works, is supposed to cost Rs 20 billion, out of which the federal government was to pay Rs 14 billion, whereas the Sindh government was to pay Rs 6 billion,” he explained. As per the official, the government in the centre has already paid Rs 3.2 billion for the current fiscal year but the Sindh government has not made any payments. When asked if any actual construction work had started, the official replied: “Underpasses, flyovers, and elevated rail tracks are to be constructed at seven locations of the 44 kilometre (km) loop of the KCR. So far the work of only two underpasses on Gulshan Iqbal 13D has been started.”

However, that construction process has remained suspended for the past three months owing to the monsoon flooding and has just been restarted, as per the official. “The two underpasses are for general traffic, while a 3.5 km long railway overhead bridge will be built at Hussainabad. Similarly, a 3.5 km long elevated rail track from Musa Colony to Manghopir and 6.5 km elevated rail track from Gulbai Phatak to West Wharf will be constructed,” the official explained. However, he cautioned that residents of Karachi might have to wait for a while to make use of the project as it had a two year completion deadline. Kashif Yousfani, Divisional Superintendent of Pakistan Railways and Project Director of KCR, when asked for an update on the project, said that phase one was underway. “In phase two, modern tracks and stations will be built. This part of the revival project is set to cost an estimated Rs 200 billion,” Yousafani informed.

However, it does not seem that a final decision has been taken on who will carry out the construction works for the second phase of the project yet. Sources privy to the matter informed the Express Tribune that currently it was being deliberated whether the project could be built as a public-private partnership. Yousfani, when asked about an update in this regard, replied: “During the recent visit of the Federal Minister of Railways Saad Rafiq, in a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister, Murad Ali Shah, the project being handed over to the Sindh government was considered. But these are all just preliminary discussions for now.” Since a final decision has not been reached yet, Muhammad Toheed, a Karachi based urban planner, criticised the government’s inefficiency. “Despite the Supreme Court’s unequivocal directives nearly 3 years ago, the circular railway has not yet been fully restored, nor have the railway crossings been abolished, nor have the victims, who were forced out of their homes under the pretext of developing the KCR, been adequately compensated,” Toheed said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2022.