The Pakistan Railways (PR) will soon be opening bids to tender for thecompletion of the country’s first and biggest transport sector project—Main Line-1 (ML-1) costing $6.8 billion.

Invitation bids are expected to be made public from September 12 as biddingdocuments have been finalised.

The n project titled “Up-gradation of ML-1” has been divided into threeseparate packages —Nawabshah to Rohri / Sukkar, Multan to Lahore & WaltonAcademy and Lahore to Lalamusa & Kaluwal to Pindora sections.

The Railways Ministry will seek expression of interest for up-gradation ofthe aforementioned packages of the ML-1 in EPC (Engineering, Procurement &Construction) mode from eligible Chinese firms on the basis. Details on thefinancing arrangements are still unclear. The invitation for bids simplysays the “project will be funded under CPEC financing arrangement through aloan from Chinese Financial Institutions and partly funded by Government ofPakistan.”

“Under the framework agreement signed between the People’s Republic ofChina and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, only Chinesecompanies/consortia are eligible to participate in the bidding process, theinvitation reads. The PR has also set a deadline of October 22 forsubmission of bids for the project.

The ML-I project was approved by the Executive Committee of the NationalEconomic Council (Ecnec) in its meeting in the first week of last month.Under a proposal, the federal government plans to contribute 10 per cent ofthe total cost of the project as its equity while 90pc cost will be met byChina under the CPEC.