An addendum was signed to the CPEC’s framework agreement for the Main Line-1 (ML-1) project during the recent visit of PM Anwar ul Haq Kakar to China.
As part of the addendum the project will now be executed with a rationalised cost of $6.678 billion instead of the earlier one of $9.85bn. After the signing of the addendum the project has now been titled “Rationalised Upgradation of ML-1 at 140/120km per hour (Upgradable to 160km per hour)”
According to sources the project consists of three phases having a total length of 1,726km, and is approximately a 16 year long project.
The design speed, according to the revised project would be up to 140km per hour which can be increased to 160km/h once the entire left/right of the track is fenced.
Since the addendum has been signed, the next steps ahead of the start of the civil work on the project would include hiring a consultant, finalizing the amended design, preparing the modified PC-1 and getting it approved by Ecnec, initiating and completing the international bidding process, signing commercial agreements, awarding the contract and releasing funds from Exim Bank (China).
