Islamabad: The Federal Government of Pakistan has instructed Pakistan Railways to carry out scrutiny of the PC-1 prepared for the upgrade of Main Line (ML)-I, reported a news source. The instructions were given during a meeting held between Pakistanis and Chinese official yesterday. The project falls under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
According to details, the Ministry for Planning, Development and Reforms has instructed the Ministry of Railways to complete the scrutiny of this project in two months so that no aspect of it is ignored. The ML-1 upgrade project is estimated to cost PKR 8.2 billion, for which the Ministry of Railways earlier approved the PC-1.
Under this project, ML-1 running from Karachi to Hyderabad and heading all the way to Peshawar while passing through Nawabshah, Rohri, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Lahore, Gujranwala, and Rawalpindi will be upgraded. Along with the upgrade, the speed of the trains will also be increased to 168 kilometres per hour. In addition to that, freight traffic on ML-1 will also be increased by 5% to 25% by 2025 and it will greet 50 million new passengers each year.
