*ISLAMABAD – China has reportedly disagreed with Pakistan suggestion oversingle largest project of the CPEC.*
*The mainline (ML-I) project of Pakistan Railways of worth almost$8.2-billion is projected for completion under a sovereign mutualarrangement.*
*China is not in the favor of constructing the largest China-PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC) scheme by means of any third-party contractors.*
According to sources in the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry ofCommunications, it is observed that China was not interested inaccommodating on the suggestion of implementing the ML-I scheme onbuild-operate-transfer basis.
Also, during the previous month combined working group-level discussions,China initiated the mater that the project should be executed in line withthe structure agreed. However, Pakistan had also then settled on to theChinese demand for abiding with the presented arrangement as agreed in May2017.
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Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar had stated, “Thegovernment is discovering the opportunities for finishing the $9 billionML-I project on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.”
The minister also added, Pakistan is keen to transfer the financial hazardof the multi billion-dollar railway project to the third party contractors.However, such decision will be needing alteration to the framework agreedbetween China and Pakistan, signed in May 2017.
According to the outline agreed for the ML-I project, China will endow with85% of the project cost as a concessionary loan. Since, this project isdeliberately significant for both the countries, therefore it was notprudent to engage third party.
