KARACHI, Nov 21: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that Sindh and federal governments have agreed to start work on the Karachi Circular Railway Project to provide modern, rapid and low-cost transportation facilities to the people of Karachi.
He said a committee, comprising representatives from the federal government, the Sindh government and other stakeholder organisations, had been constituted to undertake the groundwork to start physical work on the project.
Talking to newsmen after a meeting with Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq at the CM House on Thursday night, the chief minister said two major problems – encroachment on railways land and government land within operational area of the project – had been identified as hurdles in implementation of the project, while terms of reference for foreign loans had to be decided by the federal government.
Mr Shah said because of lack of interest by the previous federal government the main donor agency — Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) — was discouraged on one hand and encroachments by land-grabbers remained intact on the other.
He said the present government was keen to start this project at any cost because it was the need of the citizens of Karachi. He said that keeping in mind the difficulties of the people of Karachi he had requested the prime minister during his last visit to the city for help in implementation of the project and expressed his gratitude to him for sending Khwaja Saad Rafiq for this purpose.
The chief minister said today they had a meeting with experts from the federal and provincial governments, discussed the project in detail and decided that the federal and provincial governments would sort out the bottlenecks at the earliest.
He said his government had formed an anti-encroachment task force (AETF) headed by the inspector general of Sindh police. The task force will also be represented by the IG of Railway Police and other stakeholder organisations.
After conducting the field survey, the task force will prepare a strategy in such a way that the railway land will be got evacuated by land-grabbers without any loss or law and order situation.
The chief minister said his government had also planned to ply 200 new buses on the different routes to ensure competitive but low-cost communication facilities to people.
Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq appreciated the Sindh government for taking an initiative for implementation of the Karachi Circular Railway Project and assured Syed Qaim Ali Shah to extend all facilities and help from the federal government to complete the project.
He said as far as the development work was concerned the federal and Sindh governments were on the same page.
The railways minister said that removal of encroachments was essential before starting work on the project and added that it had been decided that this hurdle would be removed on a priority basis.
Responding to a question about law and order, the federal minister lauded the efforts of the chief minister to control the situation through a targeted operation against criminals and hoped that the situation created from the removal of encroachers would be controlled administratively.
The chief minister said the Sindh government would consider providing alternative land to very poor families but those who had occupied the land with commercial intention would have to face the music.
In reply to another question, he said the MQM was being taken on board as he had discussed the project with the prime minister in the presence of the Sindh governor.
Earlier, addressing a meeting on implementation of the Karachi Circular Railway, the chief minister reaffirmed that the project was very important for the people of Karachi and it would be completed at any cost.
He said that the financing offer from JICA was still workable and the government would avail this loan at a rate of 1 per cent mark-up despite having such offers from other organisations.
The railways minister told the meeting that the trust deficit between stakeholders of the project would be removed by the federal and provincial governments by initiating work on the project.
While accepting the demand of representatives of JICA, the chief minister assured the railways minister that levy of provincial tax on the loan for the project would be resolved in the next meeting of the Sindh cabinet.