KARACHI – The Pakistan Railways is to resume the Karachi Circular Railway,partially from Monday, November 16.
According to a railway spokesperson, KCR is being restored from comingMonday and will be operational in phases.
According to a press statement from the Pakistan Railways, the distance isaround 60 kilometres from Pipri to Orangi Station. “Four trains in Up andDown directions will commute the passengers between Pipri and Orangistations with a uniform gap of three hours”.
The first train will depart the Orangi station at 7 am in the morningfollowed by subsequent departures at 10 am, 1 pm and 4 pm; simultaneously,departures shall also take place from Pipri Station.
Rs50 has been fixed as the uniform fare.
As per the sources of Sindh government’s Transport and Mass TransitDepartment, the Sindh government isn’t on board regarding the resumption ofthe Karachi Circular Railway.
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On the other hand, the Sindh government had already planned a master planfor KCR, which was apparently scrapped by the federal government.
The officials of Pakistan railways said that in the first phase, the KCRline from Karachi City Station to Orangi Town would become operational and32 trains will operate on the track. Its per-day ridership would be around16,000, while the restoration of the first phase will cost nearly Rs1.25billion.
The second phase of KCR will cost Rs 8.70 billion, whereas, the third phasewould be completed under a public-private partnership.
