The Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project will now be looked after the Pakistan Railways, according to a decision announced by the federal government.
This reverses the decision by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to hand over the project to the Sindh government.
According to Geo News, the decision was reversed on the recommendation of the secretary of the Cabinet Division.
Therefore, all upgradation and operation work of the Rs739 billion project has been assigned to the Ministry of Railways.
Earlier, due to objections put forth by the ministry, the project had been handed over to the Sindh government.
In a parallel development, approval to include MQM Pakistan’s Javed Hanif in the Karachi Transformation Plan Committee was accorded.
The project faced several setbacks before it became partially operational back in November.
In February 2020, a three-member bench headed by CJP Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah had directed Pakistan Railways and Sindh government to remove all encroachments from the lands meant for the long-delayed circular railway system in the metropolis within six months.
Afterwards on Nov 10, the court issued a contempt notice to both over failure to revive the circular railway in Karachi.
