Islamabad: Under the witnessing of PM Imran Khan and Li Kequang, Minister Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing signed the declaration for an initial design of ML-1 project’s phase one.
Pakistan Railway PR) Main Line will be completed in three phases over a period of five years. A track stretched at a length of 1,872km from Peshawar to Karachi will be laid out in addition to a current one. This stands at an estimated cost of $8.2 billion.
Under this project the capacity building of PR will increase. The speed of passenger trains will increase by 60-80 km per hour. Travel time from Rawalpindi to Karachi will cut down by 12 hours. The number of trains will double and the freight share will increase to 20 percent which currently is less than 4 percent. All tracks will be under computer based signalling control to ensure safety.
The first phase is expected to construct a high-speed train from Kaluwai to Pindora including up gradation of Lalamusa- Rawalpindi section and Walton Railway Academy.
The second phase will see the completion of Multan- Lahore section and Kaimari- Hyderabad. Construction of Rawalpindi- Peshawar and Hyderabad- Multan section will be done in phase three.
ML-1 is expected to create 20 thousand direct and 150 thousand indirect jobs.
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