- KCR will return to Karachi.
- ECNEC has approved the KCR project, which is valued more than Rs300 million.
- Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presided over the ECNEC meeting.
Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, will once again have a 44-kilometer-long circular railway. The National Economic Council’s Executive Committee has authorized the over Rs300 billion Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project (ECNEC).
Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, the federal minister of finance and revenue, presided over the ECNEC meeting on Monday.
The conference was attended by Ahsan Iqbal, the federal minister for planning, development, and special initiatives; Syed Naveed Qamar, the minister of trade; Noor Muhammad Dummar, the Balochistan minister of planning and development; federal secretaries; and the chairman of the FBR.
ECNEC gave preliminary approval to the ministry of railways-modified PC-1 for Pakistan Railways’ US$ 9,851.079 million Main Line-1 (ML-1) project upgrading, subject to cost, technical, and ideally equity participation finance model recommendations.
The Main Line-1 (ML-1) connects Karachi and Peshawar through Kotri, Hyderabad, Rohri, Multan, Lahore, and Rawalpindi.
The KCR Project, which has a total cost of Rs. 292,388 million and an international share of Rs. 263,149 million, has been given preliminary approval by ECNEC. The idea is to build a 44-kilometer-long track that will be used only for a modern urban railway in Karachi. The track would start at Drig Road and go through Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Federal B area, Liaquatabad, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, SITE, and Liyari, among other places.
The 48 MW Shounter Hydropower Project in the AJK district of Neelum also received preliminary permission from ECNEC, subject to cost modifications based on changes in the dollar exchange rate. The project plans for the construction of a 48 MW hydroelectric facility on the right bank of the Baral River, a tributary of the Neelum River, near the Shounter village in Kel Town, in the Neelum Valley.
