BEIJING – China, home of world’s largest fast-speed railway network, has anample capacity to reconstruct the main railway line and build a high-speedrail system in Pakistan, Cheng Xizhong, special commentator of ChinaEconomic Net (CEN) said on Sunday.
During Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to Beijing, ChineseMinister of Transport Li Xiaopeng met with Minister for Railways, SheikhRashid Ahmed and Minister of Planning, Development and Reform MakhdoomKhusro Bakhtiar, saying that the reconstruction project of the Main Line-1railway line project should be launched as soon as possible.
He pointed out that China’s railway technology is very advanced in theworld. By the end of 2018, China’s high-speed rail operation mileage ismore than 29,000 kilometres, accounting for more than 2/3 of the globalhigh-speed rail operation mileage, which is more than the sum of othercountries.
In 2019, China plans to build 3200 km of new high-speed rail lines.“Therefore, if Pakistan wishes to reconstruct the railways and buildhigh-speed railways, China has enough capacity to cooperate with Pakistan,”he added.
Cheng said railways are important infrastructures of the country, whichplays an extremely important role in promoting socio-economic development.
Therefore, if Pakistan wishes to get rid of poverty and backwardness andembark on the track of rapid development, it should give priority to thedevelopment of the modern railway network.
He remarked that the market-oriented road should be followed, giving thetask of reconstructing the existing railways and building the high-speedrailway network to foreign enterprises with financial and technicalstrength and then obtaining funds through bank loans.
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After completion, foreign enterprises will gradually recover theinvestment, and finally, hand it over to the Pakistan government. It isvery important that the railways or high-speed railways should not be thefinancial burden of the government, but should make tax contributions tothe government in the market economy, he added.
In addition, it must be noted that railway construction, especiallyhigh-speed railway construction, costs a lot. Therefore, in order toattract the investment of foreign commercial banks and constructionenterprises, the Pakistani government should have preferential policies.
Before independence in 1947, Pakistan’s railway network had already takenshape. Pakistan is a long and narrow country. There are three main linesfrom south to north, Karachi to Peshawar, Karachi to Lahore and Lahore toPeshawar.
Pakistan has one railway connection with India, Iran, and Afghanistanrespectively, he added.
