Here is the promised fictitious map of a public tram network 🚃 in the south of #Karachi, with connections to #KCR 🚊 and the Green and Yellow BRTs 🚌. I didn’t dream it up. I read through hundreds of pages of JICA reports, so you don’t have to. Here’s what I learnt ... 
There are some Japanese folks who know Gurumandir, Daakkhana, Lalookhait & Surjani way better than most of us. They spent years conducting surveys, detailed drawings, maps and studies, all compiled into 2 key outputs: KTIP Masterplan (2013) & KCR Preperatory Survey (2013)
Each of those documents is a treasure trove 🎁 and available online. Fun facts: KCR was proposed in the 1952 Master Plan of Karachi, & a slightly modified version was built by 1969. First major piece of civic infrastructure built post partition in Karachi. 🚂
The transit corridors that are now shaping up as BRTs have been proposed as early as 1995, under Benazir’s govt. That’s 25 years of planning and no building. @ADB_HQ did some studies in 2000s. Only serious work done by @jica_direct_en from 2009-2013.
The Japanese have told us that KCR has to be fixed, since it forms the backbone of any proposed public transit network, and it already exists (mostly)! All other routes will connect to it, allowing people to go across this radial city. Each BRT will take 5 years, LRT 7 & KCR 15.
By 2020, we should have had the Green & Orange Line, and the circular loop of KCR. Only one of those will be ready by next year, thanks to the federal govt under @NawazSharifMNS who finally started it in 2016.
But for all their hard work, the Japanese have only proposed a system that allows for people to go to work & back home. There’s no mention of leisure. They also get stuck in the south, and the plans become vague south of Eidgah on Bunder Rd. Clifton only gets a bus service.
That’s why I took flight from @Shallwani’s proposed tram video, and built a complete network, connecting it to KCR and the BRT routes outlined in the KTIP 2030 masterplan. There are 7 lines, all in District South, providing access to beach, shopping & leisure for all of Karachi.
I’ll let you dig through this low-res version of the map, and play it out in your head. Share your dream journeys with me. Go to Clifton on a tram. Or take KCR from Gulshan to Tower and go to Burns Road on the trolley. Dream of a city that is worth living in.
And if you’re woken up in despair, let’s talk about bringing this dream to life. For all their technical prowess, the JICA folks dismissed hawkers of Saddar for “prioritising personal business over public good.” We will have to build our own city, or others will ruin it for us.
Wrapping this thread up with a geographically accurate version of the map. Will document the process and learnings in detail later. Thank you for amplifying this dream of 20 million folks. 🙌🏽✨🙏🏽
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