Centre not cooperating with Sindh for KCR revival, PA told.

The Sindh Assembly was informed on Thursday that Pakistan Railways was not cooperating with the provincial government to give the right of way for the construction and revival of the Karachi Circular Railway.

Giving a statement and responding to the lawmakers' written and oral queries, Minister for Transport and Mass Transit Syed Awais Qadir Shah said that the land could not be made available to the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation to reconstruct the KCR as the 'Pakistan Railways is neither ready to disturb its main railway line nor its trunk lines in the city.'

He said that the federal government's assistance was urgently required in that regard, adding that in such a situation it was necessary that the federal government construct the KCR project.

The minister also informed the lawmakers that the under-construction section of the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit Service (BTRS) project was being delayed due to the 'lethargic' attitude of the federal government that had not yet given the timeline to hand over the completed corridor to the provincial government.

The minister said that the provincial government was not in a position to start the process of procurement of buses for the under-construction Green Line section as the Karachi Infrastructure Development Company Limited (KIDCL), the federal entity responsible for constructing the project, had not yet given the timeline to hand over the infrastructure of the project to the provincial government.

He also recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan during his visit to the metropolis had offered to purchase buses for the Green Line project to make it operational, but afterwards no correspondence was made by the federal government as a follow-up to the PM's announcement.

'The chief minister has written several letters to the federal authorities asking them to hand over the constructed section, but to no avail as no response has been received so far', he said.

Procurement of buses for Green Line

The minister said that the provincial government would invite bids for the procurement of buses for Green Line once the corridor was handed over to it by the KIDCL.

He said the KIDCL authorities had verbally told the provincial government that the infrastructure of the Green Line would be handed over to the provincial government by Dec 15 last year.

Answering a question asked by opposition member Arsalan Taj Hussain regarding plans for the mass transit system for Karachi, the minister said that the...