ISLAMABAD: The ambitious plan of connecting Pakistan’s railway network fromChina and Afghanistan to Gwadar deep sea port under China Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) has been declared strategically important by both thecountries.

The plan will help commercially viable transportation of goods from Chinaand Central Asian States to the port city besides boosting trade andtourism activities in the country.

The already agreed CPEC project for up-gradation of existing Main Line 1(ML-1) railway track from Peshawar to Karachi will be materialized in thefirst phase, while the then new railways lines would be laid across thecountry to boost trade activities under CPEC.

According to the plan, a new 1,059 kilometer railway line from Havelian inPakistan’s province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Kashghar in Chinese provinceof Xinjiang would be laid to connect both the countries through railways.

Another 1328 kilometer long new railway line from Jacobabad and Quetta viaBasima to Gwadar is also planned to be established at a cost of $4.5billion to connect the port city with rest of the country and China.Similarly Pakistan Railways has also plan to lay a new 560 km railway trackfrom Quetta to Kotla Jam on ML-2 via Zhob and D.I. Khan.

New railway line from Peshawar to Torkham in Afghanistan is also part ofthe plan however in a fresh development, an official source in ministry ofplanning and development told this scribe that the railway network would beextended deep in the country to Kabul and then Mazar Sharif so that theCentral Asian states could be connected via railway line with Gwadar.

All these new railway projects have been put in the long term plan of CPECwhich is supposed to be completed by 2030.

“In order to effectively eventuate ML-1 project, it has been decided tobreak the project into three packages,” an official in railway ministrysaid. The ministry of railways has already submitted the PC-1 of package 1worth of $2.389 billion to the Planning Commission.

“Keeping in view the importance of the project, Prime Minister Imran Khanhas directed the concerned authorities to start work on the project asearly as possible, therefore the PC-1 of first package of the project isexpected to be considered by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP)later this month which would refer to the Executive Committee of NationalEconomic Council (ECNEC) for final approval,” a high official in planningministry told this scribe.

He said once approved by the ECNCEC, this project would be presented beforethe the 9th annual meeting of Joint Coordination Committee on CPEC betweenPakistan and China to be held in October this year for finalizing financingmodalities.

The scope of work includes up gradation and doubling of ML-1 from Karachito Peshawar and Taxila to Havelian (1872 km) including provision of modernsignaling and telecommunication systems, conversion of level crossings intounder passes/fly overs and fencing of track. CPEC project leader inMinistry of Railways Basharat Waheed said that on completion of ML-1,Pakistan Railways will reap up the advantages of increase in speed from65-105 km/hour to 120-160 km/h, increase in line capacity from 34 to 171trains each way per day, increase in Freight Volumes from 6 to 35 milliontons per annum by 2025, increase in passenger trains (ex-Karachi) from 20to 40 each way per day and increase in railway share of freight transportvolume from less than 4pc to 20pc.

Journey time from Karachi to Lahore will be reduced from existing 18 hoursto only 10 hours while that from Islamabad to Lahore will be reduced fromfour and half hours to two and half hours, he added.

He said financing for the project would be arranged through loan by thegovernment of China.

Share of Chinese Loan and government of Pakistan Investment would be85pc:15pc. Loan will be on favourable terms at around 2pc with graceperiod of 8-10 years. As per Business Plan, the loan will be paid back in20 years, after project completion, from railway earnings.

Meanwhile according to official documents available with APP, the projectwill create around 20,000 direct jobs for local people while it will alsocreate over 150,000 indirect jobs in the country.