SC directs Railways to get land clear along KCR track

ISLAMABAD: A bench of Supreme Court on Thursday heard case regarding the revival of the Karachi Circular Railways (KCR), ARY News reported.

Pakistan Railways counsel told the court that the railway has submitted its report to the court over the matter.

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that the pictures in report explain nothing adding, in these photographs the land seen under encroachments. “How the train will run when the land adjacent to track has been under encroachment,” the CJP remarked.

“The path for running a train has been cleared,” CEO Railways told the court.

“Talk as a responsible officer,” Chief Justice retorted. “Don’t you think the encroached land not belong to the Railways,” CJP asked. “The Railways should have cleared everything to appear before the court,” he further said.

“Take tractor with you and demolish all encroachments,” the top judge said.

“A building just have a distance of four feet from the railway track,” Justice Faisal Arab observed.

The court ordered Pakistan Railways to get clear the land along the railway track.

In February, the court had directed the Pakistan Railways to revive and operate the KCR within six months and asked the provincial government to build necessary infrastructure like underpasses and overhead bridges at the level crossings.

During last month’s hearing, the railways secretary had informed the court that the KCR track had “almost” been cleared of encroachments.

At this, the chief justice had regretted that the time granted by the court was over, but the KCR had not yet been revived.

The KCR which was commissioned in 1964, originally to help employees of the Pakistan Railways travel between their jobs, the service became a full circle of 44km in 1970 and connected Karachi’s four main work areas: the port, the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE), the city’s central commercial areas such as Saddar and the Landhi Industrial Area. The KCR remained the public transport of choice for the people of Karachi till 1984 when the number of its trains was reduced.