Trains to be outsourced after railways upgrading

Speed of trains to be increased from 120 km/h to 160 km/h, Senate panel told

ISLAMABAD: Trains will be outsourced to private firms after upgrading of the Pakistan Railways under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

However, the railway tracks will remain under control of the government. After the upgrading, the number of trains will also be increased.

Briefing on 1,872km long Mainline-I (ML-I) project, Project Director Basharat Waheed on Thursday told Senate’s Standing Committee for Planning Development and Reforms that after upgrading of the railway track, speed of trains to be increased from 120km/hour to 160km/hour.

“$9.2 billion ML-1 project will complete in 9 years,” he said.
He said number of passenger trains will also be increased from 40 to 80 and railway freight share of Karachi will be increased from 4% to 20 %. “Duration of journey from Karachi to Lahore will reduce from 18 to 10 hours while duration of journey from Lahore to Multan will reduce from 5 hours to 3 hours.”

The committee recommended speeding up work on ML-1 project.
In the meeting that was chaired Agha Shahzeb Durrani, Minister for Planning Asad Umar said earlier project were included in the Public Sector Development Programmes (PSDP) without feasibility. “However, now projects are not given a go-ahead until acquisition of land for them.”

He said there would be single ownership of the projects. He said it was difficult to do project with the provinces. Umar, however, said Sindh government was doing a good job on K-4 Project. “We are identifying projects whose feasibilities were not reviewed and will shift their funds to other projects”.

He said a committee is going to be formed in the National Assembly to seek consensus on the Pakistan Medical Council (PMC) formed after dissolution of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).
The chairman pointed out domicile problems and said people from other provinces get Balochistan's domicile for admissions and jobs. Asad Umar agreed that domicile system is “a major problem”.

“If one does not get a job on merit in one province, he get domicile from the other province. The issue of domicile must be resolved in consultation with provinces,” he said.

The Planning Ministry official told the panel that they have asked Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) to take action against those responsible for increase in the cost of the Nai Gaj dam.
The project worth Rs26 billion, was initiated in 2012 and was to be completed in 2015 but due to delays cost of the dam has increased manifold

The chairman said a separate meeting will be convened on Nai Gaj dam which should be attended by officials of Wapda, Ministry of Planning and government of Sindh.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman briefed the committee on its scholarship program and said under the Ehsaas Programme, 50,000 scholarships will be given annually. “25,000 scholarships will be reserved for women. More than Rs6 billion have been allocated for the project this year.” The committee recommended giving priority to the poor and the middle class in scholarships.