Rawalpindi: Development work to lay Pakistan Railways Main Line (ML)-1 will start next year, a news source reported. The project, which is part of the mega projects being launched under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, will reduce travelling between Karachi and Lahore to a mere 10 hours.
ML-1 is expected to revamp the operations of the Pakistan Railways by allowing trains to travel at a speed of 160 kilometres per hour. Sources from the Pakistan Railways have revealed that the ML-1 track will contain no railway crossings and overhead bridges, as these will be moved underground.
Out of the existing 2,800 railway crossings in the country, there are 1,500 that aren’t being monitored by the Railway’s staff. Furthermore, the dilapidated train tracks, many of which were built over a century ago, continue to cause accidents. This is in addition to the fact that the train bogies and engines currently in use also in very poor conditions.
Interestingly, the project had initially been conceived about 14 years ago. However, it was only earlier this week that Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed announced that Pakistan and China had finalized the USD 8.2 billion ML-1 project.
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