By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)
The Divisional Superintendent Railways, Karachi, Anzer Ismail Rizvi, has left for Tokyo, Japan, to attend 15-day Urban Railway Development, Operation and Management Training Programme being organized by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) from February 14.
The programme will be attended by a total of 13 Pakistanis including seven from the Pakistan Railways.
In a brief interview, prior to catching a connecting flight to Bangkok, Anzer Rizvi pointed out that the further development of Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan with its population of over 18 million, will be the focal point of discussion in the upcoming programme.
“The city is the centre of economic and trade activity. However since Urban Mass Transportation system has not been properly managed here, it is facing traffic congestion as well as air pollution. The JICA has been working on the preparatory study to revitalize the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) with an aim of improving current urban transportation system,” the Divisional Superintendent remarked.
“Based on the JICA’s evaluation of past railway projects in other countries, it was found essential to ensure appropriate operation and management of the railway and have a well established organizational structure that will be the in charge of the railways,” Anzer Rizvi explained.
To assist the project, he added, the JICA proposed capacity development of professionals as well as their organizations that will be involved in the KCR project.
He recalled that Japan has its long history of running various successful urban railways and the training program will be implemented with the purpose to provide participants with opportunities to learn specific knowledge concerning urban railways and contribute to the introduction of urban public transport and the solution of the urban transportation problems by administrative management in their respective organization.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has promoted Anzer Rizvi into Grade 21 and he received this information hours before starting his journey to Japan.
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