The ruling PTI seems to have realised that to win over voters in Karachi it was not enough to continue to berate its political opponents as it had been doing non-stop since coming to power. Instead it was required to take concrete measures for the uplift of a city which provides 65 percent of federal and about 90 percent of Sindh’s revenue but faces severe transport and civic problems. Hopefully government has realised the urgency to implement at least a part of its promised Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP).
Karachi, with over a 16 million population lacks a dependable public transport system. Besides the suffering that people endure, the economic cost of the insufficient public transport is unsustainably high. On Monday PM Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of Karachi Circular Railway, which is a 43 km long affordable mass transit system using eco-friendly electric trains. This would provide a decent and comfortable transport to tens of thousands of people every day. But this too is insufficient for the megapolis.
Another mass transit project in the offing is the Green Line BRTS, a modern technology-based transport system that would cater to the needs of 135,000 passengers per day. The project is supposed to be operative with nearly 100 buses by end of November 2021. PM Imran Khan deserves praise for recognizing during the KCR ceremony that the uplift of Karachi requires joint efforts by both the Federal and Sindh governments.
PM Khan’s tweet regarding Karachi coastline plan having been included into CPEC and calling it a game changer however looks like another pie in the sky. As things stand it is no more than a plan on paper. We are told that the project is solely based on Chinese investment. There is no word about the terms and conditions that convinced the Chinese investors to pour in $3.5 billion in the project. Pakistan has yet to pay dues to Chinese investors in the power sector while the Dasu project remains closed for failure to pay compensations for the Chinese engineers killed by terrorists. As some of the PM’s most important promises made before the elections are yet to materialize, few are likely to be carried away by the Karachi coastline project.
