Report by Engineering Post
Fate of Pakistan Railways mega project for Up gradation and Rehabilitation of the Main line-1 (ML-! ) from Karachi to Peshawar continues to hang in balance even after a decade for want of huge concessional financing by China under the overall framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
About 1800 kilometers (1118 miles) long Karachi to Peshawar Main Line has been the centerpiece of more than 50 billion CPEC in line with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) way back in 2015.
Since China was not responding positively to Pakistan’s persistent request for providing a major share of about $ 6 billion concessional financing for quite some time by now, Manila, the Philippines, based Asian Development Bank was reported to have revived its interest in financing the ML-I project in a phased manner.
ADP has shown interest to partly finance ML-I project ‘s initially about 500 kilometer stretch from Karachi to Rohri through a loan of $ 2 billion. The matter was reported to be in an advanced stage though there was mention of ML-I financing during ADB’s President’s recent visit to Islamabad.
Derailment of passenger as well as goods trains every now and them was only emphasizing the dire need for up gradation and rehabilitation of the ML-1 for its huge financing Pakistan was looking for major lender from the international market as the huge costly project cannot be financed from its own resources eve n in a phased manner despite the bitter fact of the need being stressed greatly with every passing day.
In Pakistan Railways on-going schemes listed in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of the Federal Government for financial year 2025-26, the mega railway project was listed as ” “Re-modified PC-1 for up gradation of Pakistan Railways existing Main Line-1 (ML-1) and Establishment of Dry Port near Havelian. The PC-I was remodified by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in July 2024 for implementation at an estimated huge cost of Rs 1970220.000 million with Rupee Cover of Rs 1674687,000 million. No expenditure was reported to have been incurred on the mega project implementation till end of June 2025 and an allocation of Rs 3000.000 million including local component of Rs 2000.000 million has been provided for its implementation during ongoing financial year 2025-26.
However, it was not mentioned besides local cover of Rs 2000.000 million, and Rupee cover of Rs only Rs 100.000 million
from where the foreign funding will be forthcoming.
