Railways to help Sindh in KCR project: Sheikh Rasheed

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed on Sunday said that he had assured the Sindh government that his ministry will extend all possible cooperation and support for timely execution of the Karachi Circular Railways (KCR) project, including handing over the Pakistan Railways land if required for this project.

He was addressing a press conference at his camp office in Karachi on Sunday.

Shaikh said that in compliance with the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on this account, he would hold a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at the Chief Minister's House on Monday to discuss the issues and remove hindrances to KCR.

“KCR is a project of the Sindh government and we will assist the province if it makes some progress for its restoration,” he said. He said the PR had got vacated its 38 kanals of land occupied in the city and five kanals more were still to be vacated.

Recognizing the importance of Karachi in the country’s economy, he said that Karachi is the jugular vein of the railways and the most experienced and well-reputed team of PR officers would soon be transferred to Karachi from Lahore, the PR Headquarters.

He also said that a railways university will be established in Sindh under the ML-1 [Main Line 1] project. "I have established two universities in Rawalpindi."

The railways minister also claimed that the federal government had reduced deficit of railways by four billion rupees and its target was to shrink it by Rs6 billion this year.

He said that a quality train service was also being launched to support Pak-Afghan transit trade. He also said that due to limited resources, it was difficult for the PR to run more trains in the country.

Rasheed also said the Pakistan Railways fares were rationalized to bring improvement in the railways services.