After a 21-year closure, the Pakistan Railways has announced that it will partially resume the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) service from November 19.
The service was originally scheduled to resume for November 16, however, it is now delayed over the non-finalization of the arrangements. Yesterday, a KCR train comprising four bogies and two locomotives traveled a 14-kilometer-long distance from Karachi’s City Railway Station to the Orangi Town area.
It was reported that the train took around two hours to cover the entire distance that is supposed to take minutes because of the dilapidated condition of the tracks and stations.
While the station also lacks basic facilities. Road crossing in Gulbai and other areas has become a complicated issue in the resumption of KCR and sources privy to the development said that traffic to be stopped temporarily through ropes at crossing points of the KCR trains.
Karachi Circular Railway – A brief history
The KCR started its operations in 1969 under the supervision of the Pakistan Railways and was discontinued in 1999 due to major financial losses.
Since then, several attempts were undertaken by the federal and provincial governments to revive the local train.
The KCR project comprises a 29.41-kilometer-long two-way KCR loop along with the provision of a 13.69-kilometer-long two-way dedicated track along the Pakistan Railways’ mainline, which stretches from the City Station to the Drigh Road Station.
The Sindh government hired the National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK) as the lead and technical consultant of the project while AKHUND Forbes was the legal consultant.
Complete tracks of KCR
The project’s complete track will start from Drigh Road station, going through Gulistan-e-Jauhar and heading to Gulshan-e-Iqbal. It will turn towards Nazimabad going through Yaseenabad and Liaqatabad.
The track then heads to Manghopir and SITE before going taking a turn towards Baldia and going through Lyari, Mereweather Tower, City Station and onward to PIDC and Karachi Cantt.
The KCR would run parallel to Sharah-e-Faisal and pass through Chanesar Goth, Shaheed-e-Millat, and Karsaz before completing a round trip at the Drigh Road station.
Conflicts between federal, provincial governments
Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had announced the Transport Master Plan 2030 where six bus transit routes (BRT) have been promised. The routes will cover 95.1km and provide transport to about 350,000 people daily.
In June 2018, the government had also announced the revival of the now-defunct Karachi Circular Railway. A 50 km track was promised to be built, covering all the industrial and urban areas of the metropolis.
However, there have been numerous delays in the progress of each of these projects due to conflicts between the federal and provincial governments.
Supreme Court orders
In February 2020, the Supreme Court issued orders that the KCR be relaunched within six months. A three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and also comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah — directed the PR and Sindh government authorities to remove encroachments from the lands needed for the relaunch of the long-delayed train service within six months.
The bench, while hearing a case at the apex court’s Karachi registry, had expressed resentment over the failure of the federal and provincial authorities to implement the court’s directives of May 2019 to remove encroachments from the KCR tracks, revive the train service and relocate the people to be affected by it.
Due to the lockdown and other restrictions imposed in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the project was delayed for a further few months. But now the authorities are confident that the first phase of the service would be launched on 19 November.
Current situation of transport
According to the World Bank, there should be a 100-seater bus for every 1,500 people. So considering Karachi’s population of 14.91 million, there should be 20,448 35-seater minibusses and 5,566 50-seater buses.
But the number of buses plying the roads is much less than that. There are a total of 329 routes in the metropolis out of which only 111 buses are available while there are 218 routes where people are forced to pay exorbitant prices for rickshaws and taxis. Most working-class people can’t afford private vehicles therefore they rely on public transport services.
Would the KCR solve traffic issues?
Transport related problems in the metropolis have augmented significantly in recent decades. Traffic congestion contributes to increased air and noise pollution, leading to health issues, high accident rates and environmental degradation.
While a large number of private vehicles are added to the city’s roads every year, the public transport vehicles and infrastructure have deteriorated significantly. The public transport facilities further suffered because of the governance structures that have been in flux.
As evident from the consensus among all the stakeholders that Karachi needs a better and well-connected public transport infrastructure, the decision of reviving the KCR is just one step forward in the right direction.
Now, amidst the fast-growing, the public transportation system in a city of over 20 million people, the announcement for KCR’s revival has emerged as a fresh promise for easy and economical traveling within the city for its dwellers.
