Fed Railways Ministry agrees to hand over KUTC, ROW to Sindh govt to revive KCR.

KARACHI -- The Sindh government and Pakistan Railways have decided to resolve all the pending issues of Karachi Circular Railways, including handing over federally-owned Karachi Urban Transport Company (KUTC) and Right of Way to provincial government so that the [KCR] project could be started by getting its financial approval from CPEC-related Joint Coordination Committee scheduled to be held in Beijing in April 2020.

This decision was taken in a meeting between the Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah and Federal Railways Minister Shaikh Rasheed here on Monday at CM House. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Advisor law Murtaza Wahab, PSCM Sajid jamal Abro, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahalwani, Secretary ransport Abbas Detho. The federal Minister for Railways was was assisted by Secretary / Chairman Railways Habib-ur-Rehman Gilani, CEO / Sr. GM Railways Dost Ali Leghari, DS Railways Nisar Memon, , DG Planning Railways Syed Mazhar Ali, Addl. General Manager railways Furrukh Taimoor.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah giving chronology of the KCR to the federal railways minister said that on December 3, 2016 he had requested the prime minister to include KCR under CPEC frame work, issue Sovereign Guarantee for its revitalization, and hand over Karachi Urban Transport Company (KUTC) to Sindh government and hand over Right of Way (ROW) to KUTC.

Mr Shah said that the Prime Minister [Nawaz Sharif] approved all his requests and formed a committee on the issue of handing over ROW to KUTC, therefore the matter was delayed. He added that the revival of the KCR was agreed in sixth JCC meeting held on Dec 29, 2016 at Beijing.

The chief minister said that on October 6, 2017 ECNEC approved KCR project at the cost of Rs207.6 billion ($1.97 billion) through Chinese loan. The Transport and Mass Transit Dept issued administrative approval of the project on Nov 8, 2017.

According to the chief minister the KCR was technically qualified and matured for implementation in the 7thJCC meeting held on November 21, 2017. In 8thJCC meeting held on December 20, 2018 the importance of the KCR was recognized and in the 9thJCC meeting held in islamabd on November 6, 2019, the Chinese side stated that the Pakistan Government should submit the financing request to the Chinese side.

Mr Shah said that he had held a meeting with Chairman CPEC Authority Lt Gen Asim Bajwan in Islamabad who had assured that the KCR project would be implemented in...