Pakistan Railway to invite international tenders for Mainline-1 (ML-1) under CPEC

LAHORE:
The Pakistan Railways is going to invite international tenders for the Main Line-One (ML-1) project on September 12. The ML-I is one of the major projects under the multi-billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“We are going to open the international tenders of the ML-1 on September 12. It is good news for the Pakistan Railways,” Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid said at a press conference in Punjab’s provincial capital on Saturday.

He said the railways management will simultaneously initiate the publicity of this mega project which it believes is the only way to revive the ailing public sector corporation.

The framework agreement for ML-1 was signed on May 15, 2017 during the visit of Pakistani premier to China. Since then the railways management had been eagerly waiting for the project’s final approval which the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) gave on August 5.

The price of the ML-1 project has been downward revised to $6.8 billion. Earlier, the project cost around $8.2 billion. The entire ML-1 covers a 1,872km track and includes laying a new track and upgrading the previous one to ensure 160km per hour speed.

It also includes rehabilitation and construction of bridges, provision of modern signaling and telecom systems, conversion of level crossings into underpasses and flyovers and fencing of the entire track

It is expected that once completed, railways passenger traffic will be doubled which currently stands at 50 million on this track.