Will Karachi Circular Railway be restored?

Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has directed the Sindh government and Railway Ministry to demolish all the encroachments, including buildings and petrol pumps from land belonging to Pakistan Railways and to revive the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR).  

SC ordered the concerned authorities to restore Karachi Circular Railway within a week and remove all the encroachments. “We need KCR to be restored in its original shape,” SC stated.

Let’s take a deep review of KCR:

What is Karachi Circular Railway?

Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) is a defunct regional public transit system in Karachi. KCR was commissioned in 1969 with the aims to provide better transportation facilities to people of Karachi and was highly patronized till 1984 when almost 104 trains were operating per day. The circular railway line started from Drug Road Station and ended at Karachi City Station. In addition, there were local trains running between Landhi and Malir Cantonment on the mainline of the railways. In the first year of its operation, KCR made instant success and generated a profit of Rs 5 lakh to Pakistan Railways.

What happened with KCR?

By 1994, KCR was in incurring major losses due to mismanagement. Therefore, the vast majority of trains were discontinued with only a few running on the loop. Unfortunately, by 1999, KCR operations were closed completely. Railways Ministry on shutting down the operations claimed that the reason for the discontinuation was that the Pakistan Railways was facing a loss by running the trains all over the city with few passengers taking advantage of the facility. Some reports suggest that private transporters created conspiracies with the help of some corrupt Pakistan Railways staff members to fulfill their desires to bag the bulk of passengers for themselves.

Steps taken for revival of KCR

In 2004-5, Pakistan government initiated to revive Karachi Circular Railway as a modern Commuter System for Karachi. The government requested Japan for the revival of KCR. The project was undertaken with the technical and financial assistance of the government of Japan through JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). In 2009, Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC) was proposed in which KCR operated as a semi-autonomous body. In 2012, JICA agreed to provide a loan to KUTC for the rebuilding of the KCR; however, the plan never materialized.

With the directives of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the KCR was designated as a part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project and was expected to be completed in three years. The project was estimated to cost around Rs 270 billion. In July 2017, tensions between Sindh and the federal government affected Karachi’s development projects after which restoration of the circular railway was halted.

Later in 2019, the Supreme Court ordered Chief Minister Sindh, Commissioner Karachi and Pakistan Railways to restore and operate the Circular Railway in 45 days. However, the date passed away without any commencing.

New plans for Revival of KCR

Karachi Circular Railway project includes the transformation of old KCR into the mass transit system. The total length of the railway line is expected to be 43 kilometers. The project will include the construction of 19 underpasses and three overhead bridges.  About 23 stations are planned for the project. Computerized tickets, vending machines, automated ticket gates, and elevators are also planned in the project. About 290 trains are expected to operate daily.

Barriers in Project

Encroachments are the biggest hurdle in the maintenance of Karachi Circular Railway. Slums, illegal buildings, workshops, junk markets, and residential colonies have occupied the KCR routes. People are living there for 20 years. The people living in slum areas on the KCR route developed their buildings and settled their businesses. Illegal buildings were built by the influence of the builders’ community.

Court orders and government actions

The federal government and Sindh are on the same page regarding the restoration of Karachi Circular Railway. On the orders of the Supreme Court, measure steps are being taken to eliminate the encroachments on KCR routes.

Railway Minister Sheikh Rasheed is also ready to provide alternative houses to the victims of the operation against the encroachments and also appears to give KCR project to the Sindh government.

Apparently, there are no barriers at the governmental level in the restoration of Karachi Circular Railway at this time. Now the only thing that matters is when Karachi Circular Railways will be completed?