On Thursday, the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) cleared a total of three development projects with a cumulative estimated cost of about Rs280 billion, including the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR).
The meeting chaired by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Jahanzeb Khan finalised at Rs273.071bn the cost of KCR as a modern urban railway project and requested the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) to approve its implementation in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode on a build-operate-transfer basis.
Planning Minister Asad Umar presided over a meeting of the board of Public-Private Partnership Authority (P3A) on Jan 25 and had asked the Railways Division and the Planning Commission to finalise the cost estimates and submit them to the CDWP for scrutiny and subsequent approval by the Ecnec.
An official statement said the 43-km dual track of the Urban Rail Mass Transit System will be constructed in a period of three years on a PPP basis. The main objective of the project is to provide reliable, safe and eco-friendly public transport to the metropolitan city of Karachi.
