Land-Grabbing Along KCR Tracks Continues

At a time when efforts are under way to revive the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), more Pakistan Railways (PR) lands along the proposed KCR tracks are being occupied by the land mafia in Karachi.

A visit to different areas of the city along the KCR tracks revealed that railway land was being grabbed by the land mafia on a daily basis. In the past week alone, several vacant plots belonging to the PR in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Jahuar and Malir were occupied along the KCR tracks with concrete structures being erected at a fast pace.

Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Railways Senator Maulana Gul Naseeb had admitted that new encroachments had taken place along the proposed KCR tracks in the city. “I have personally visited several areas in Karachi and found that there are 30 places where the KCR land has been grabbed by political groups and the land mafia,” he said while talking to reporters during his recent visit to Karachi this month. However, he had vowed to raise the issue in Senate.

Currently, the KCR lands are in the possession of the Pakistan Railways and have yet to be handed over to the Karachi Urban Transport Corporation (KUTC). The corporation is working on KCR’s revival with the help of international funding and technical assistance.

Insiders in PR claim that while authorities consider resettlement of encroachers of KCR lands, more encroachments were being carried out by the land mafia and influential political groups who were seeking more compensation from the Pakistan Railways in exchange for vacating the lands.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out for the KCR project in 2009 had predicted that around 42,000 people would be affected and must be relocated to other areas. However, others beg to differ and say that hundreds of thousands of people would have to be relocated.

“Currently, PR and Sindh government are at loggerheads over the land as the latter claims that it owns the land and had given it to the railways for operational purposes only,” Senator Gul Naseeb Khan told The News.

Officials say that since the KCR project is funded by Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC), the KUTC will have to follow its guidelines for resettlements.

According to sources, the socio-economic survey pertinent to the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) has also been sought to collect the demographic conditions of the project area. Also, on the basis of 1894 Land Acquisition Act, only legal owners and the tenants registered with the Land Revenue Department or possessing formal lease agreements will be eligible for compensation or livelihood support.

KUTC’s Managing Director Ejaz Khilji told The News that so far the railway lands have not been handed over to the corporation so the occupation of these lands does not concern him or his organisation.

“Currently, these lands are in the possession of Pakistan Railways. It is currently negotiating with various organisations for the re-acquisition of its lands from several other organisations like Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Cantonment Boards and the Pakistan Army,” he maintained.

He, however, was optimistic of KCR’s revival and said, “All stakeholders, including the Sindh government, City District Government Karachi and other land owning authorities in Karachi are doing their best to see that the project materialises.”Khilji said that his organisation was following the guidelines of JICA and donor agencies including JBIC, World Bank and Asian Development Bank for the project.

“We have the EIA of the project approved from the environment protection agency, the re-settlement project is also underway for which CDGK and Sindh government, the satellite imagery of the encroachments along KCR tracks has been done and the feasibility of the project is also complete,” he said.

400 New Buses Soon in Lahore

THE Lahore Transport Company (LTC) has finalised arrangements for running 400 new buses in the City.

Moreover, AC coach service will ply in the city within next three months and 11 places have been identified in the city In this regard, where new bus terminals and depots would be established.

This was stated by Chairman LTC Tasneem Noorani while presiding over a meeting of the board of directors here on Wednesday. Advisor to CM Khawaja Ahmad Hassan, MPAs Mohsin Latif, Mehr Ishtiaq, Secretary Transport Mohammad Yousaf, DIG Traffic Tariq Masood Yasin, Javed Masood, CEO LTC, JI Kim, GM Operations Asad Gillani, GM Enforcement Fawad Qureshi, GM Finance Adnan Mudassar were also present in the meeting.

The chairman said that air-conditioned coach service would ply from Defence to Secretariat, Shahdara to Shadman market and Cantt to Kalma Chowk. He said private sector was keen in investing in this project. He said that electronic ticketing system was being introduced in the AC coach service.

He said that agreement between LTC and Bahria Town would give strong impetus in providing better transport facilities to the residents of Bahria Town, Izmeer Town, EME Society, Thokar Niaz Baig, EXPO Centre, Johar Town, Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Main Gulberg and other localities. He said that the route permit had been issued to Bahria Town in this connection. The length of this route from Bahria town to Main market is 35 km. He said that the role of enforcement wing of LTC was being made effective to regulate public service transport in the city.

The meeting was informed that LTC had challaned 9,888 owners of public transport vehicles for violations. Chairman LTC said the process of recruiting 280 transport enforcement inspectors was being initiated by LTC. He said that LTC would set up a modern vehicle fitness centre in Kot Lakhpat for maintaining better standards of public transport vehicles in Lahore. He said that task of road marking and flag posts have been completed on Jail Road, Canal Road, The Mall and Main Boulevard, Gulberg.

Transit guru: My Life in the Bus Lane

I wish that Pakistani's Cities will get a mayor like this one day .....

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Curitiba, Brazil (CNN) -- I had been standing on the street with Jaime Lerner for less than one minute when a stranger stopped to greet him.

"Hello Mr. Mayor!" said a young woman carrying a backpack. A mere 30 seconds passed before another person did the same.

"Oh, my governor! How are you, sir?" said an older gentleman.

"Good morning," Lerner purred in Portuguese as we made our way towards the thing that made him a hero to his fellow Curitibans and an inspiration to a generation of urban planners around the planet: the bus.

Curitiba's Bus Rapid Transit system is one of the most admired public transportation systems on the planet, garnering accolades and spawning spin-off systems in cities like Bogotá and Los Angeles.

Curitiba's six dedicated fast-lane bus lines traverse the city, carrying 36,000 passengers per hour and 2.3 million overall every day. It's affordable too -- a single fare costs $1.25 and will take you 20 kilometers outside downtown.

"You [pay] before entering the bus and you [board] at the same level. And the frequency is less than one minute. It's like a subway. You don't have to wait more than one minute. So it's a good service," said Lerner, a stout polyglot who speaks seven languages.

We then climbed the steps to the elevated glass tube that functions as the enter/exit point and boarded the orange line towards the city center. As we cruised along, even more people stopped to shake Lerner's hand, and it quickly became apparent to me that his reputation as an "eco-pioneer" is well deserved.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/07/13/jaime.lerner.curitiba.brazil/index.html?hpt=Sbin&fbid=nxmNqU0XKGs

What's more, it seems that the people who appreciate his work the most are his former constituents, who reap the rewards of his innovative thinking on a daily basis.

"I do think this city was a pioneer. It was a learning process and we quickly started to understand that you have to work fast," said Lerner.

Working fast is what got Lerner elected as Curitiba's mayor three times, and later twice-elected as governor of the Brazilian State of Parana. He and his young fellow architects conceived Curitiba's Master Plan in the mid 1960s, which soon resulted in the bus system as well as pedestrian-only streets, more parks, and later, a unique trash-for-cash recycling program that encouraged people to turn in garbage and reusable materials in exchange for food and other goods.

Word soon spread throughout Brazil and then the world about Curitiba's progressive and environmentally-friendly initiatives, earning it a reputation as one of the "greenest" cities on earth. Lerner now spends much of his time traveling the world and sharing his vision with others.

"Every city can improve its quality of life in less than three years. No matter the scale of the city, no matter the financial conditions," Lerner said. "When we realize that 75 percent of carbon emissions are related to the cities, it is the cities where we can be most effective."

But even Lerner, 72, has to deal with the daily reality of moving around a city with 3.2 million inhabitants. He owns a car but says he tries to use it only when necessary, and is constantly encouraging city planners to create work and living quarters located close to one another. To this end, Lerner certainly practices what he preaches: his office is located across the street from his high-rise apartment.

"My door-to-door trip takes about 40 seconds. It's a tough commute," he joked.

Brazil's booming economy means more cars on the roads these days, and even in Curitiba there's gridlock, something that I witnessed firsthand during my first day in the city. But I soon learned that it only increases many Curitibans' love for the bus.

"I take the bus and I am home in 20 or 40 minutes. In a car, it can take an hour and a half," office worker Cibele Bassi said.

"On the bus I only spend 2 reales. For my car, I need 10 reales worth of gas. So it's better to suffer a little on the bus than to drive my car," said Octavio Silva, a hospital employee.

In addition to its lauded bus system, Curitiba also boasts plentiful parks -- there are 51 square meters of green space per person in the city -- one of the highest per capita rates on the planet.

One of those spaces is the Curitiba Botanical Garden, a sprawling park filled with flowers, ponds and trees. Its art-nouveau style greenhouse is one of the city's most recognizable landmarks.

That's where I met Fabio Duarte, a professor of Urban Planning at the Pontifical Catholic University of Parana who told me that Lerner's global reputation as an eco-pioneer is well deserved.

"He said this little city in the middle of Brazil has something to say; we can have good public transportation, we can have public parks, we can have some kind of recycling garbage program, and this is very important," said Duarte.

Still, Duarte criticized Curitiba's citizens and current leaders for becoming complacent in recent years.

"Most of the programs that Jaime Lerner and his team started 30 years ago....have been left alone or neglected. Public programs can't be left alone. We must be there everyday to maintain them," he said.

Lerner left politics in 2002 and now dedicates his time to his architecture firm, which has worked on urban planning projects for cities including Shanghai in China, Perm in Russia, Mazatlan in Mexico and Luanda in Angola.

He is also designing an electric mini-car, the Dock Dock, that he hopes will clear congested roads and reduce carbon emissions. Lerner says he is proud of his accomplishments, but there's still much for him and others to do.

"There are three major issues now that are becoming important, not only for cities, but for all mankind: Mobility, sustainability -- which is linked to mobility -- and social diversity."

They are all issues that Lerner told me he hopes other city dwellers around the world will start to embrace. And with his infectious enthusiasm leading the way, I am confident that more and more will.

Rs5 billion CNG Buses Project in Doldrums

Same fate expected for this project ................ let's see ........
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ISLAMABAD, July 10: The Rs5 billion CNG buses project aimed at easing public transport pressure in ten major cities is in doldrums.

A Ministry of Environment initiative, the CNG buses project was conceived in 2005 and federal cabinet on July 16, 2008 gave go-ahead to launch 8, 000 buses in major cities like Karachi, Multan, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Gujranwala, Sukkur and Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The government had approved 4,000 CNG buses for Karachi alone.

“But the project has met with delays from the start. Gas shortage, financial crunch, political interests, and resistance from local transporters are still major hurdle to this genuine mass transit system,” said an official of the ministry of environment.

However, abandoned by the previous military government, the project seemed to have been picked up by the present regime.

In the budget for 2009-10, the government had allocated Rs300 million against a demand of Rs1.3 billion.

“This drastic cut is because of fears about the success of the project,” he said adding, “Worst, allocations for 201011 were further cut to Rs200 million.” Sources in the ministry were of the view that the money released was apparently for survival of people associated with the project. “Otherwise the project is impractical because of gas shortage.

After the UN sanctions on Iran the gas pipeline project seems to have hit snags and with it the hope to overcome the shortage also dashed.” While relevant government departments had yet to provide implementation plan, route planning and land use, there were disputes between certain offices over provision of high pressure dedicated CNG stations.

“The dedicated Compressed Natural Gas Stations are to come first. But nothing is being done on these lines,” said another official.

The issues of congenial environment for bus operators, identification of routes for CNG buses, selection of operators and manufacturers besides arrangements for any feasible loans were still pending.

KCR to be Back on Its Feet Soon: Senator Gul Naseeb Khan

The chairman of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Railways, Senator Gul Naseeb Khan, had alleged that the current railways minister as well as two of his predecessors had been equally responsible for the mismanagement and corruption in the railways.

“I believe that the three ministers, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Shaikh Rashid Ahmed and Javed Ashraf Qazi, are equally responsible for mismanagement and corruption in the railways,” the senator told a group of journalists here at the Qasr-e-Naz.

The senator, who is in the city to meet the people concerned on getting the Karachi Circular Railway back on its feet and to look into the issues of the employees colony, dispelled the “propaganda” that the railways was going through a crisis.

“Some officers of the Pakistan Railways are trying to prove it as a dead organization so that it could be privatized,” alleged the senator.

“I’m not in favour of privatization. The standing committee, however, will recommend to the government to make the organization an autonomous body,” he said.

The JUI-F senator said that he had been shocked to learn the extent of encroachments on the railway’s lands, an issue he would raise in the senate.

A sub-committee would present a comprehensive report on the grabbing of railway’s land and on the revival of the KCR, he said.

Maulana Gul Naseeb claimed that the revival of the KCR was now a matter of days as all the stake-holders had given their nod and that they only needed to sort out some legal issues pertaining to the lands owned by the railways.

He said that corruption, mismanagement and political interventions were some of the major issues haunting the organization.

He also said that lack of locomotives was also a major issue that needed to be resolved urgently.

The senator claimed that the factories of the Pakistan Railways, especially the one at Risalpur, could produce up to 75 per cent of the total number of locomotives required.

The chairman of the standing committee said that they had suggested to the government to constitute a commission over the fate of the railway lands retrieved from the encroachers.

He said that the committee would also suggest to the government to close all those routes that were a financial disaster.

The senator accused Shaikh Rashid Ahmed of deriving “political benefits” from the organization during his tenure as minister.

He picked out delays in departures and arrivals, luxuries enjoyed by the railway officers and unhygienic and uncomfortable trains as the chronic issues bedeviling the organization.

Regarding security to the railways installations and tracks, the senator said he would raise the issue in the senate.

Meanwhile, leaders of Pakistan Railways Mehnatkash Union called on Senator Gul Naseeb Khan and apprised him of their demands and issues.

They demanded of the senator to fix 50 percent quota in the organization for the children of employees and disband PRACS which was proving to be a white elephant and restore PNS Shifa on the railways panel.

The senator assured the delegation, comprising Abdul Majeed Solangi, Muqadar Zaman and Aurangzeb Tanoli, that he would personally take the matter up with the railways minister.

Plight of Students Commuting Daily, Continues

How long the students have to bear all these huge daily commuting expenses to reach schools, colleges and universities .............
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Commuters Suffer as LTC Suspends Bus Service

How they gonna implement LRMTS ........... when they are not able to run more than 50 buses since this LTC has been formed .................. Ironic
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LAHORE – The commuters, travelling on Route No 51 falling from Bati Chowk to Chungi Amarsudhu, are facing difficulties to reach their destinations due to vehicular congestions at this route owing to the stoppage of bus service provided by the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) since February 2008.

Once the route was considered safe for the road users of Chungi Amarsudhu area to reach different localities of city like Gulberg, Model Town, Faisal Town, Iqbal Town, Samanabad, Mozang Chungi, The Mall and other places. Most of the citizens are running their business in these localities and number of government offices and shopping markets are also situated in these areas.

Now this is the same route, where the people have to wait for hours for a travel of only 20 minutes. With the passage of time, the aforementioned route has become a hallmark of huge traffic mess and accidents.

Vehicular congestions at this major route have been irritating the commuters besides causing unnecessary time and fuel consumption.

As per on-going situation, Mazdas, wagons and auto-rickshaws have been charging fares from the ill-fated commuters according to their unchecked demands. According to official records, almost 700 Mazdas, 500 wagons and 1,000 rickshaws have been plying on the said route.
The citizens are also forced to pay extra-charges if they intend to reach their destinations in time.

Moreover, the traffic mess at the said passage has doubled the miseries of the commuters.
A number of passengers shared to this scribe that it took them almost three hours to reach at Chungi Amarsudhu from Bati Chowk. In the near past they had been reaching their offices in 30 to 40 minutes. They alleged it seemed the LTC had intentionally banned public transport on this route by putting the commuters on mercy of rickshaw and wagon drivers.