According to sources, the restoration of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) has added to the woes of Pakistan Railways (PR) by incurring heavy losses within a short time.
The first phase of the resumption of the intra-city train service from Pipri Station to City Station has not been successful, and instead of reaping profits, the railway authorities have been suffering losses. Only 25 percent of its capacity is being utilized by the passengers, which is putting the authorities at a financial loss.
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Sources state that the route between Pipri Station and City Station should have carried around 2,000 passengers but the numbers are far below expected, and only 250 passengers have utilized the train service. Furthermore, it is only at 6 pm that 90 percent of the capacity is utilized.
The daily income from the service is about Rs. 7,500 on average, which, when added to the thousands spent on daily running costs, results in the loss of many thousands of rupees per day.
It has been revealed by sources that a detailed report of the losses incurred due to the restoration of the KCR will soon be presented to the Supreme Court.
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Questions had been raised prior to the restoration of the intra-city train service as many experts believed that the plan to restore it would be ineffective. The traveling schedules also raised eyebrows as there is a gap of three-and-a-half hours between back-to-back trains. Furthermore, the trains cannot operate at maximum speed and the route would be extremely long for the passengers.
The KCR had been inactive for over 21 years before it was restored to traverse its 14-kilometer old route on 19 November this year.
It didn’t even restore, and where the trains are moving?
What kind of loss they are showing?
I think they expected more revenue from it, Which of course hasn’t happened.
Restoration of full schedule is required for better utilization of capacity. Public awareness through marketng campaign will help to increase the loads.
Theres no reason that KCR would not work.
It is gonna take some time to convert investment in to profit. The Minister himself said that it will take somewhere up to 3 years for installation of new tracks, new trains, new stations, etc.
Also the tram service is also in the works. It would help KCR greatly by flowing the tram track through or near the KCR stations.
It only shows the interest relevant authorities in particular and the faces who runs the show in general, they have to provide basic facilities to people who pays taxes and votes them to be their master
There is acute shortage of transport in Karachi and if Pakistan Railway properly market then there should be no loss.
Local transport mafia is strong enough that it can prevent Pakistan railway to again cancel the operation before even it starts marketing and public awareness campaign they can bribe even courts to abondon KCR again and make profits by running 1905 model buses on Karachi roads.
Local transport mafia?
Where the heck is local public transport? there are only few buses on the road, stop calling them mafia, for the sake of corrupt politicians.