Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan Railway (PR), Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and Karachi administration would begin a joint anti-encroachment on the tracks of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) on Monday, according to officials.

The decision to conduct a joint operation in order to remove encroachments on both sides of the KCR track was taken after special directives were issued by the Justice (r) Gulzar Ahmed who had ordered that KCR be revived and encroachments be removed from its tracks. He also directed Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and cantonment boards to remove encroachments within their domain.

Justice Ahmed, who was chairing a meeting at apex court’s Karachi registry, said that no time should be wasted in revival of KCR which had been abandoned almost two decades ago. Railways officials said that PR had already started implementation of SC’s orders and soon they would rid the KCR tracks of encroachment.

Justice Ahmed, the acting Chief Justice of Pakistan in absence of Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, had last week directed city’s deputy commissioners to remove encroachments to clear route of KCR as well as land in their respective areas after divisional superintendent of PR had said that most of PR owned land had been encroached on.

The KCR was commissioned in 1964, originally to help employees of PR travel between their jobs at and around City and Cantonment Railway stations and their residences in Karachi’s eastern neighbourhoods. The service became a full circle of 44 kilometres (km) in 1970 and connected Karachi’s four main work areas; port, Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE), city’s central commercial areas such as Saddar and Landhi Industrial Area.

The KCR remained popular with the citizens and was frequently used as a mode of public transport till 1984 when its number of trains were reduced due to a plethora of reasons including lack of maintenance and repair, a yawning gap between rising expenditure due to higher fuel and decreasing revenue due to subsidised tickets and the government’s inability to spend money on improvement of tracks and stations.

According to Karachi Mass Transit Cell, number of level crossings points where a railway line crossed a road or any other thoroughfare also increased in city, causing KCR trains to take longer to complete their journey. At one stage, there were 34 level crossings on KCR route. The KCR finally shut down in 1999, forcing thousands of its daily users to travel by buses.

Meanwhile, Karachi Development Authority (KDA) removed stalls and shops from more than 5,000 plots in city, according to a report submitted to Supreme Court’s Karachi registry on Saturday. Justice Gulzar Ahmed reiterated his orders for KCR and restoration of tram system during the hearing. “Next anti-encroachment operation will be in Lea Market,” said Karachi Mayor, Waseem Akhtar. “We are devising a strategy to conduct operation in Lea Market and will try to relocate affected shopkeepers in other marketplaces,” said Akhtar. He reiterated that the operation against encroachments would continue.

During a previous hearing, deputy superintendent of railways had told Justice Gulzar that railway’s land had been occupied in several parts of the city. Justice Gulzar had then directed authorities to rid railway tracks of encroachments.

During the encroachment drive that commenced on SC’s orders, shops and stalls were razed to the ground and land surrounding the Empress Market was also cleared of encroachments.

A day earlier, an anti-encroachment operation was conducted from Hassan Square to NIPA Food Street. The operation was conducted against restaurants that had extended to roads in front of them and had occupied footpaths. The teams removed 750 shades from shops as well. After carrying out an anti-encroachment operation on University Road, teams demolished a large number of buildings on Burns Road as well. “It was not easy to remove encroachments from Karachi. However, it was only made possible after SC’s order,” Mayor said.

Published in Daily Times, November 25^th 2018.