Senior Indian Foreign Service officer Navdeep Suri will be India's Consul General in Karachi, where the Indian Consulate is likely to be reopened from January 1 2006, after more than 11 years.

The name of Suri, currently Joint Secretary (Africa) in the External Affairs Ministry, has been cleared by the government, official sources said on Friday.

The Indian consulate in the Pakistani port city of Karachi is likely to start functioning from January 1 and hectic efforts are underway to renovate the consulate building. It had been closed down in 1994, when bilateral ties hit a low.

With thaw in bilateral relations, India and Pakistan decided this year to reopen their consulates in Karachi and Mumbai, respectively.

The then External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh visited the consulate on October 5 to inspect the progress of renovation work. He said a directive had been issued to restore the building by December 31, so that its visa office can function from January.