Govt reverses ECC's decision to hand over KCR project to Sindh govt

LAHORE: The federal government has taken back the Economic Coordination Committee's decision of handing over the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project to the Sindh government, it was learnt on Saturday.

According to a news website, the government has reversed the decision on the recommendation of the Cabinet secretary and assigned all the upgradation and operation work of the project, worth Rs739 billion, to the Ministry of Railways.

In another development, the government accorded approval to include MQM-P’s Javed Hanif in the Karachi Transformation Plan Committee (KTPC).

The KCR project was earlier handed over to the Sindh government due to objections raised by the ministry. The project faced several setbacks before it became partially operational in November last year.

Earlier in February last year, a three-member bench of SC, comprising of Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justices Faisal Arab and Sajjad Ali Shah, had directed the Pakistan Railways and Sindh government to remove all encroachments from the lands meant for the KCR project within six months.