KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Thursday that his government was working hard to develop the Dhabeji Special Economic Zone and get the feasibility study of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) completed so that both projects could be `formally` moved for their inclusion in the list of schemes related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

He said this while presiding over a meeting on CPEC at CM House in which Zafar Mahmood, special envoy of Pakistan in Beijing, was also present and discussed matters pertaining to CPEC projects. The other participants of the meeting included transport minister Nasir Shah, ACS (dev) Mohammad Waseem, principal secretary to the CM Naveed Kamran Baloch, transport secretary Taha Farooqui and secretary for energy Agha Wasif.

Mr Shah said he had directed the chief secretary to convene a meeting of the Land Reserve Committee to allocate 1,000 acres of land for the special economic zone at Dhabeji.

`Once the land is allocated a meeting of the development committee would be convened to plan development of the zone,` he said and added that by March the project would be sent to the CPEC projects executing committee.

On KCR, the chief minister said he had held a number of meetings on the project and Rs45 million had been provided to the transport ministry to conduct its feasibility. The worl( on feasibility was at its final stage. Meanwhile, the meeting was told that the government was going to launch an anti-encroachment drive to remove encroachments along the railway track.

`We are going to install fences along the track of the circular railway so that work on this project could begin without delay,` he said.

The chief minister was informed that there were certain issues pertaining to NOCs with the Shanghai Electric Company in finalising the deal with K-Ele ctric. He assure d the visiting envoy that he would support them as far as his government was concerned. `I am expecting a huge investment by them in power generation to cater to the needs of the industrial sector of my city,` he said.

The chief minister said his government was going to develop one-window facilities for investment in Sindh. `We are also planning to organise an investment conference to highlight opportunities in the province,` he said.

Development of zoo CM Shah held another meeting for development of the Karachi zoo which decided to redesign the garden and develop it on the pattern of the Singapore Zoo which was almost the same size.

The chief minister was briefed by design director Zain Mustafa and MPA Samar Ali Khan, an architect; they proposed dismantling the cages and developing larger enclosures.

Mr Shah said an enclosure must have natural habitat with animal-centric environment.

The architect told the chief minister the innovative enclosure design was based on research from the designs of 10 international zoos such as in San Diego, Singapore, Bronx, Berlin etc.

The meeting was told the material to be selected for enclosures would be designed for low maintenance, sustainability, and to be animalfriendly. The ground soil would also be changed as per physical needs of animals. Apart from it, there would be a system within the enclosures which would feature animal furniture, hiding dens, raised levels, climbing structures, and perching surfaces. The chief minister asked the city mayor to come up with plans to redesign the Safari Park, which could be taken up in the next financial year.