Islamabad: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has deferred the approval of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)’s USD 9.2 billion ML-I project to allow time for the relevant authorities to straighten some remaining concerns regarding the venture — a news source reported.
ML-I is a critical project for CPEC; however, according to
the report, a number of reforms in the railways industry — coupled with a
sustainable debt servicing model — was required to ensure the success of the
project.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Planning,
the sponsors of the project need to prepare a fresh analysis to ensure that the
project is financially and economically viable.
The statement further said that the freight generation for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) is not going to be possible immediately for ML-I, since the SEZs are still in the pipeline which reduce the immediate sustainability of the ML-I project.
The Planning Commission had recently asked the World Bank to
provide a third-party review of the project. The World Bank, in turn, had
recommended further reforms for the Pakistan Railways to ensure that the
project was a success.
