Report by Engineering Post
Only 6 ongoing Railways projects were likely to be completed during the outgoing financial year by end June 2025 out of 26 ongoing projects costing huge total estimates of Rs 183608.957 million including foreign loan of only Rs 310.375 million.
Foreign loan was for the project ” Renovation and Construction of Offices, Women Barracks and Multi-Purpose Training Rooms at the office of the Superintendent Railway Police, Rawalpindi Division”. The donor agency name could not be ascertained immediately. Besides 26 ongoing projects, the Ministry of Railways was scheduled to launch 12 new projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2030 326.555 million including foreign loan of Rs 1674683 .430 million.
The 32 ongoing and new projects were now going to be undertaken in terms of implementation during the new financial yer 2025-26.
Main mega project which was listed among the projects to be launched during outgoing financial year 2024-25 included “Up-gradation of Pakistan Railways existing Main Line -1 (ML-1) and Establishment of Dry port near Havelian (2018-22) Phase -1 (CPEC) at an estimated cost of Rs 1970215.800 million including foreign loan of rs 1674683.430 million. Against such huge cost, only Rs 1000.000 million including foreign loan of Rs 100.000 million were allocated. According to the Railways officials, the total estimated cost of the ML-1 project, which was considered vital for supporting the Reko Diq and Thar coal ventures , now was Rs 2298.18 billion.
These officials were quite optimistic when they said that the critical Main Line-1 (ML-1) project was going to be launched during the financial year 2025-26 despite pending funding by the federal government.
