Karachi Circular Railway in CPEC, Potential for CDM

In developing counties transport development is closely linked to economic progress, however in case of Pakistan the development of transport projects increase burden to the national and provincial budget in terms of development expenditures but also in shape of subsidies provided to these projects for the operation and maintenance. Considering transport sector development, the Government of Sindh is going to develop Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project, which costs around US $ 205 – US $ 207 million, under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), through which a Chinese firm will design and construct the project on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis. As the transport activities includes numerous health and environmental harms, this project can be helpful for earning significant non-fare revenue, which can be helpful for returning of this loan or either meeting some operation & maintenance expenditures. KCR under CPEC may explore the project portfolio of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is expanding rapidly, though there are limited numbers of transport sector project. Through this paper we examine the situation of transport sector projects in CDM. This include some of the successful projects registered in CDM, based on the data related to fleets, cars, motorbikes, and other vehicles the potential carbon emission and shifting mode of transport from personal vehicles to KCR, potential of KCR project as CDM project and way forward to gain carbon financing. We may conclude that it is possible to design the project design document for CDM project of KCR under CPEC as the project boundaries fit into the framework of CDM. However due to repetitive projects scope we need some additionality in the project like solar power stations, lighting and other measures to reduce the carbon beside the railway network.