Syed Marwan Shah

The planned Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) is expected to serve 457,000 passengers daily that are expected to increase to one million per day in the near future, WealthPK reports.

The project will be completed at a cost of Rs292.389 billion. The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has already recommended the scheme to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for execution.

The scheme envisages the construction of a 44 kilometres long dedicated track and 1,435 mm wide standard gauge starting from Drig Road and passing through different areas including Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Sindh Industrial Trading Estate and Lyari.

The KCR project entails the construction of a dual-track urban rail mass transit system expected to be completed within four years. It includes the transformation of the obsolete and old-fashioned KCR into a modern mass rail system to operate electric trains 17 hours a day and seven days a week.

After completion, KCR is expected to serve 457,000 passengers per day. The number of passengers is expected to soar to one million per day in the future. The total length of the KCR corridor will be 43 kilometres. There will be 30 stations along the corridor.

The previous government had approved the public-private partnership (PPP) mode of financing for the execution of the project. However, the current government has decided to get a loan of $1.1 billion from the Chinese government for the project.

The scheme will be executed on the pattern of the Lahore Orange Metro Line. Federal and Sindh governments are eager to present the project to Chinese authorities during this week’s meeting of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Joint Cooperation Committee, according to the information available with WealthPK.

Earlier in January this year, the Public-Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) board approved the financing model of KCR under which around Rs90 billion would be given in subsidies to complete the project in partnership with the private sector. KCR was part of the Rs739 billion Karachi Transformation Plan that the previous federal government promised to implement within three years but it failed to do so.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk