Karachi Circular Railway Begins Partial Operations on Thursday

WEB DESK: The Karachi Circular Railway Begins Partial Operations Today (KCR) has Begun partial operations today Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed inaugurated the first phase of the project.

The KCR operations are partially restored on a 14-kilometer (km) long track of the complete 55km.
In the first phase, four KCR trains each would run from Pipri to City Station.

The timings for trains’ departure would be at 7 am followed by a second at 10 am and while the noon shift would start from 1 pm and then the last of the day at 4 pm.

The fare on the restored routes will be Rs 30. The fare for a complete 55km route of the circular railway is set as Rs 50.News360 learned that a 14km stretch from Orangi to City Station has not been restored completely.

The stations still lack basic facilities whereas no ticketing booths have been established too. Therefore, the passengers would buy a ticket from the ticket checker.

Sources informed that at several points on tracks, railway crossings have not been made yet.

Owing to this, the road traffic in Gulbai and other areas would be stopped using a chain or a rope as an offset.

Karachi Circular Railway Begins Partial Operations Today comprises of a 55km long old track of the system. Some 30km of it comes under the loop line while the remaining 14km is main line. There will be a total of 20 stations along the route.

Supreme Court’s order

In light of the Supreme Court (SC) orders, the first phase of the mass transit system has been restored between February and November this year.

KCR project will be revived in three phases, the first phase being 14 km from City Station to Orangi.

The second phase is a 7 km track from Orangi station to Gilani station.

While in the final phase, KCR will run on a 9 km track from Gilani station to Drigh Colony.

The mass transit project will be completed with a cost of Rs 1,850 million.

Under full capacity, some 32 trains will haul around 16,000 passengers daily.

It will take only half an hour or so for the trains to complete the entire track.