ADB, World Bank eye $6.8bn ML-1 railway
Economic Affairs Division briefs National Assembly panel as cost is revised down from $9 billion after Chinese financing ends.
ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank and the World Bank have expressed interest in financing Pakistan's 1,800-kilometre Karachi–Peshawar Main Line-1 railway project, whose cost has been revised down to between $6.68 billion and $6.80 billion after Chinese financing was withdrawn.
The Economic Affairs Division gave this account to the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Economic Affairs at a meeting chaired by Mirza Ikhtiyar Baig. A team led by Economic Affairs Division Secretary Humair Karim told the committee that the ADB was being considered as the lead financing institution, Dawn reported.
ProPakistani reported that the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank had made co-financing commitments. The European Investment Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency have also shown interest in the project, the committee was told.
The committee heard that ML-1 is not limited to rehabilitation and upgrading of track and structures. It also includes institutional and operational reforms intended to improve the efficiency, sustainability and service delivery of Pakistan Railways. The project design was reassessed to find gaps and incorporate improvements. After that work, the estimated cost was revised to around $6.68 billion to $6.80 billion, down from an earlier estimate of about $9 billion, according to ProPakistani and TechJuice.
The railway is being designed for train speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour. The currently envisaged operational speed is up to 120 kilometres per hour. The construction period is targeted at about three years.
Members of the committee raised concerns about the proposed operational speed. They said modern railway technologies and international standards should be fully utilised, and called for infrastructure and operational parameters to support speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour where technically and economically feasible.
The withdrawal of Chinese financing has pushed Pakistan to court other lenders for what is one of the country's largest transport infrastructure projects. Asia News Network reported that the multilateral interest in ML-1 follows the Chinese financing withdrawal.
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