Report by Engineering Post
China has supported Pakistan’s proposal for multilateral financing for the mega railway project Main Line (ML-1) from Karachi to Peshawar, fate of which has been hanging in the air for almost a decade as the required concessional financing loan was not forthcoming from Beijing.
This almost breaking through development happened when the 14th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting was held in Beijing recently.
Accordingly, the US $ 7 billion ML-1 project will now possibly be funded through financial assistance from multilateral banks including the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which rank prominently among Pakistan’s international development partners. The ADB has already showed its interest to finance the mega railway project.
Field surveys for ML-1 were already underway by Pakistan Railways while phased construction was also being planned ensuring safety and continuity.
The re-modified PC-I for Up gradation of Pakistan Railways existing Main Line (ML-1) and Establishment of Dry port near Havelian was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in July 2024 at an estimated cost of Rs 1970220.000 million including Rupee Cover of Rs1674687.000 million. Only Rs 3000.000 million have been allocated for the mega project by the Railways Division under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of the Federal Government for financial year 2025-26. However, there was no indication about any possible foreign assistance for the mega railway project.
It is pertinent to mention here that for the first time there is no mention of foreign aid throughout in the PSDP document for all development ongoing and new schemes listed in it.
