Daily Times

KARACHI: Preparations are being made for test trial of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project, as six-month deadline set by the Supreme Court for making this project functional, is approaching next month.

Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shalwani held a meeting regarding the revival of the Karachi Circular Railways (KCR) on Sunday at the Pakistan Railway’s divisional superintendent office.

According to details, Karachi Railways Divisional Superintendent (DS) Arshad Salam Khattak briefed the meeting about the work being carried out for KCR revival. He told the meeting that the track between Karachi city to Korangi will be completed in two months.

Six-kilometre KCR track has been completed while work on remaining 8-kilometre track is underway, he told in the meeting.

Khattak said that Railways will launch test trail of KCR after completion of 13 kilometres ground track. The KCR project is 12.63 kilometres at grade (on the ground), and 30.75 kilometres elevated with 24 railway stations out of which 14 will be elevated. The average distance between each station will be 1.8 kilometres.

Earlier, Federal Minister for Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed had expressed the confidence that KCR would be operationalised in six months in collaboration with the Sindh government.

Rasheed had said that the Supreme Court (SC) had directed to complete the project within six months, adding that the federal and the Sindh governments are on the same page in context. He had said that housing colonies illegally constructed on railways land and financial crunch were the biggest hurdles in this regard.

On February 21, the apex court had ordered to make KCR operational within six months.