Islamabad: The Senate Standing Committee on Planning Development and Special Initiatives was recently informed that a study had been carried out concerning the proposal to connect Gwadar and Peshawar via a rail line through Zhob and Quetta, a news source reported. As per the publication, the committee was also informed that Quetta and Gwadar cannot be included in the Mainline-1 (ML-1) project.
The committee was told that the ML-1 project falls under the auspices of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative, which is why other railway projects cannot be included under its umbrella. Besides, the project has been planned this way because of its limited budget and tariff. The committee also discussed the traffic congestion on M1 Motorway and M2 Motorway.
The committee was further informed about the development of the M6 Motorway from Sukkur to Hyderabad, which will be 100 feet wide and 306 kilometres long. The motorway section will need 6534 acres of land and will pass through 119 villages, 17 tehsils, and 6 districts.
Although funds for the purchase of the land in six
districts have already been allocated, the final payments in this regard are
yet to be made. The committee ordered the swift payment of the funds for buying
land, and also asked for the submission of these land records within a month.
