Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday urged Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to approve the Karachi Circular Railway at its earliest of that it could be launched in December.
The chief minister called the Prime Minister Abbasi and discussed various issues between Sindh and federal government threadbare in cordial manner, including the KCR which he said is the most important project for the people of Karachi.
The project has been cleared by Central Development Working Party (CDWP) but is facing bureaucratic red tapism from Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) which is purely a waste of time.
“I want to start the KCR project by the end of December, therefore it needs to be approved at the earliest and the same may also be sent to Chinese authorities for formal inclusion in CPEC,” he said.
PM Abbasi assured that he would personally get it approved, and said that it has already been included in CPEC projects.
Sindh government plans 1200 MW LNG power plant in Karachi. CM Sindh also took up the issue of prolonged load shedding in Sindh. He said the provincial government has planned to install 1200 MW LNG-based power plant in Karachi and the federal government should allocate gas quota to it.
“I would be thankful if you [PM] issue necessary instructions to the petroleum ministry to approve LNG quota for the project. This would help to get the project approved from CDWP and the tariff for it,” he said.
He said the Sindh government would need the PM’s full support and assistance for NOC and to fix the tariff by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA).
PM Abbasi said he would encourage installation of power plants. He added that load shedding was a national problem and he would help provinces to install power plants.
The other issue CM took up was of abandoned small power plants installed in different districts of the province. The tariff was decided by Nepra when they were installed but later backed out, due to which the private companies who installed small power plants have abandoned them.
He requested the prime minister to intervene into the matter personally and get the tariff decided which would help to reduce load shedding locally. PM assured to resolve the issue.
