Railways forwards CPEC project for upgrading tracks

First phase of $9.172b plan will cost $3.375b in three years

LAHORE: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project head in the Ministry of Railways, Basharat Waheed, has submitted a scheme worth $9.172 billion for approval by the Planning Commission.

The project will be completed in nine years, in three phases. The first phase will cost $3.375 billion, the second phase will cost $2.241 billion and the third phase will cost $3.555 billion.

In the first phase, the 1,872-kilomtre (km) track from Karachi to Peshawar will be upgraded to run trains at a speed of 160km per hour.

In addition to this, railway barriers, signals, station buildings, underpasses and flyover bridges will also be constructed. The Walton Railway Academy will also be upgraded in the first phase, which will cost $43.4 million.

The Express Tribune has learnt that the CPEC project has been submitted to the Ministry of Railways by the project head for the fourth time for approval.

Trains to be outsourced after railways upgrading

In the first phase, the 132km track between Lahore and Lalamusa will be upgraded to run trains at 160kmh, at a cost of $712.4 million. Moreover, upgrading the track between Lalamusa and Peshawar, for trains to run at 120kmh, will cost $752.2 million.

A new line for upgrading the track between Peshawar and Nowshera will be set up at a cost of $862.6 million.

In the first phase, the 521km track between Kaluwal and Pandora will be upgraded and a double line will be laid, which will cost $343.3 million, whereas on the 183km track between Nawabshah and Rohri railway stations, trains will to run at 160kmh after the upgrade. The work will cost $351.955 million.

However, in the second phase, the 339km track between Lahore and Multan will be upgraded for trains to run at 160kmh, which will cost $1.1831 billion.

The work on the Hyderabad section, including Kemari, will cost $858.1 million.

The third and last phase of the project will cost $28.7 million whereas another track for trains running between Rawalpindi and Peshawar at a speed of 120kmh will be upgraded at a cost of $584.9 million.

The 749km double track between Multan and Hyderabad, on which trains will run at 160kmh, along with the purchase of locomotives and cargo carriages, is likely to cost $2.236 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2020.