A plan to upgrade the country’s main railway line – the backbone of Pakistan’s transport – cleared a major hurdle on Monday, receiving in-principle approval.
Karachi Circular Railway also got green light.
This decision was taken during the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Monday. The meeting of the committee was chaired by Federal Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Balochistan Planning Minister Noor Muhammad Damar, Federal Secretaries, Chairman FBR and the top officials of the provinces besides the Federation. attended. .
ECNEC considered and approved in-principle a project from the Ministry of Railways to upgrade the existing Main Line-1 (ML-1) project of Pakistan Railways under its Project Concept-I (PC -1) was modified.
The project is estimated to cost around $9.851 billion but is subject to feasibility of cost, technical details and preferably equity participation financing model.
Main Line-1 (ML-1) starts from Karachi, passes through Kotri/Hyderabad, Rohri, Multan, Lahore, Rawalpindi and ends at Peshawar.
Circular Railway
The ECNEC also considered and gave in-principle approval to the Rs 292.388 million Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project.
However, the forum considered that the major portion of this should be paid by foreign governments or about Rs 263.149 million.
The project envisages construction of 44 km long dedicated track of Modern Urban Railway in Karachi starting from Durg Road to Gulshan Iqbal, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Site and Lyari. will pass through the areas of
AJK Power Project
ECNIC also discussed and approved in principle the establishment of a 48 megawatt (MW) Shaunter Hydropower Project at Neelam, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, subject to revision based on the exchange rate at Rs 220 to the dollar. .
The project envisages the construction of a 48 MW hydropower project located on the lower reaches of the Baral River on the right bank of the Neelum River near the Keel Town village of Shontar in the Neelum Valley.
