Islamabad: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has approved the USD 9.85 billion Pakistan Railways (PR) Main-Line-1 (ML-1) project, news sources reported on October 20.
The project is recommended to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval. The project is approved in principle, with a 45% increase in construction costs over the original estimate. According to the amended cost plan, the project’s development work has been divided into two parts, with the first phase concerned with the actual construction of the ML-1, which would cost PKR 1.97 trillion. The second phase would cost PKR 35.991 billion and is concerned with ML-1’s security during development.
The new Project Concept-1 (PC-1) will rehabilitate a 1,733-kilometer-long route, with 482 underpasses, 53 flyovers, 130 bike bridges, and 130 stations built along the way. It was highlighted that the first phase will be completed in three separate packages, with Package-I consisting of five components, including the Nawabshah-Rohri section, the Multan-Lahore section, the Lahore-Lalamusa section, the Kaluwal-Pandora section, and the Upgradation of Pakistan Railways Training Academy (Walton).
It is important to mention that the framework agreement of the ML-1 project was signed on May 15, 2017, during the prime minister’s visit to China. The commercial contract for the preliminary design was also signed on May 15, 2017. The project had been declared ‘strategic’ by the 6th JCC meeting, and its feasibility had already been completed and approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in August 2020.
Nauman Ahmad is an imaginative Pisces whose love for literature and nature is unparalleled. When he's not reading or hiking, he's sleeping and eating, which gives him plenty of energy for his next adventure.
