$6.8b ML-1 railway project gets green signal

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Wednesday approved the project of Pakistan Railways for upgradation of existing Mainline-1 (ML-1) and establishment of dry port near Havelian.

The project was approved at the rationalised cost of US$6,806.783 million, on cost sharing basis between the governments of China and Pakistan, according to a statement issued by the Finance Ministry.

The ECNEC meeting was chaired by the Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh at the Cabinet Division, it added.

The execution of the project would be done in three packages and in order to avoid commitment charges, the loan amount for each package will be separately contracted.

Under the project, the existing 2,655 kilometre track would be upgraded while the speed of passenger trains would increase from 65/110 kilometres per hour to 165 kilometres per hour and the line capacity would increase from 34 to 137/171 trains each way per day.

Ministry of Railways would constitute a project steering committee for effective supervision and implementation of the project, the statement added.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting and CPEC Authority Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa tweeted that the 1,872 kilometre railway project from Peshawar to Karachi would include Havelian Dry Port and upgrading of Walton Academy.

“Update ML-1: Alhamdolillah, ECNEC has approved the transformational railway project at a cost of $6.806 Bn from Peshawar to Kci(1872 KMs) including Havelian Dry Port and upgrading Walton Academy,” he wrote on his official Twitter handle.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, in a video message on his Twitter handle, said that the ML-1 would be a crossing-free track and reduce the travel time from Karachi to Lahore to seven hours and from Lahore to Rawalpindi to 2.5 hours. “The ML-1 is very important for reducing railway accidents,” he added.

He said that the project would allow trains to ply at a speed of 160 kilometres per hour, adding that 150,000 people would work on this project.

The minister also said that ML-1 was a revolutionary project and it would revamp the entire structure of the Pakistan Railways.

The ECNEC also approved the Pakistan Single Window (PSW) project. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would be the sponsoring agency for this project.

The total cost of the project has been estimated at Rs11,074.16 million including Rs9,020 million as foreign exchange component (FEC).

The project would be completed by June 2023 and it is expected to enhance Pakistan’s global ranking in cross border trade related indicators.

It would also serve as the integration point bridging cargo/logistics systems and other trade related processes.

The project would provide an automated single-entry centralised hub for submission and processing of 90% of the licenses, permits, certificates and other documents (LPCOs) for external trade.

ECNEC also approved the change in cost sharing ratios of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its co-financing Partners for “Construction of BRT Red Line Project, Karachi” at the total cost of Rs78,384.33 million including FEC of Rs66,378.33 million (with cattle based biomethane as fuel technology).

The project was already approved by ECNEC on 29th August 2019, the statement added.

PhD Scholarship Program under US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor (phase-1) was also approved by ECNEC at the revised cost of Rs25,226.274 million including FEC of Rs24,303.543 million.

In the revised PC-1 the scope of the project has been curtailed to 1,000 scholarships (from 1,500 scholarships) mainly due to appreciation of dollar rate against Pak-rupee and inclusion of tuition fee/ research grant.