The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Wednesday approved upgradation of Pakistan Railways’ Mainline-1 (ML-1) at estimated cost of $6.806 billion (equal to Rs11.44 trillion) under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Chairman CPEC Authority Lt Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa stated in a tweet on Wednesday. “Alhamdolillah, Ecnec has approved the transformational railway project at a cost of $6.806 billion from Peshawar to Karachi (1,872km) including Havelian Dry Port and upgrading the Walton Academy,”
While PML-N ex-Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that ML-1 was agreed in 2016 in view of CPEC with Chinese side and its technical feasibility was completed in 2018. He praised that now it is finally approved but he said that token allotment of Rs. 6 billion is inadequate to kick-off the project.
According to official announcement made after the meeting, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh chaired the meeting of Ecnec here at the Cabinet Division.
The project of Pakistan Railways for “upgradation of Pakistan Railways existing Mainline-1 (ML-1) and establishment of dry port near Havelian” was also approved by Ecnec at the rationalised cost of $6,806.783 million on cost sharing basis between the governments of China and Pakistan. The implementation of the project shall be in three phases and in order to avoid commitment charges, the loan amount for each phase will be separately contracted. Under this project, the existing 2,655km track will be upgraded. The speed of passenger trains shall increase from 65/110 km/hr to 165 km/hr and line capacity will increase from 34 to 137/171 trains each way per day. The Ministry of Railways would found a project steering committee for effective supervision and implementation of the project.
Ecnec approved the Pakistan Single Window (PSW) project, FBR shall be the sponsoring agency for this project. The total cost of the project shall be Rs11,074.16 million including Rs9,020 million as FEC. The project shall be completed by June 2023 and it is expected to enhance Pakistan’s global ranking in cross border trade related indicators. It will also serve as the integration point bridging cargo/logistics systems and other trade related processes. The project will provide an automated single-entry centralized hub for submission and processing of 90 percent of the licenses, permits, certificates and other documents (LPCOs) for external trade.
The PhD scholarship programme under US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor (phase-1) was also approved by Ecnec at the revised cost of Rs25,226.274 million including FEC of Rs24,303.543 million. In the revised PC-1, the scope of the project has been curtailed to 1000 scholarships (from 1,500 scholarships) mainly due to appreciation of dollar rate against Pak-rupee and inclusion of tuition fee/ research grant.
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