Ishaq Dar orders financing review for Pakistan Railways overhaul
Meeting in Islamabad weighs commercial bank loans for the Rohri-Multan section of ML-1 alongside public-private partnerships and foreign lenders.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting in Islamabad on 11 November to review proposals for revamping and restructuring Pakistan Railways, and told the ministries and financial institutions at the table to examine how the work would be paid for.
Minute Mirror reported that Dar called a modern, efficient and financially sustainable railway essential for strengthening Pakistan's economic integration and for improving regional connectivity.
He instructed officials to look in particular at commercial bank financing for the Rohri-Multan section of the Main Line-1 (ML-1) project, so that the section can be taken forward. ML-1 is the main trunk line of the national rail network, and Rohri-Multan is one stretch of it.
The meeting reviewed financial arrangements and operating models drawn up to upgrade railway infrastructure and to improve the long-term financial sustainability of the state-owned railway. The proposals cover how the organisation is run as well as what it owns, according to the report.
Participants discussed public-private partnerships, financing through domestic banks and support from international funding institutions, Minute Mirror reported.
The talks centred on finding funding arrangements and operating strategies that could carry the modernisation of Pakistan Railways and strengthen its part in national development and regional trade connectivity.
24 News HD and sabahnews.net also reported that Dar chaired the meeting, which both described as an assessment of proposals for the railway's revival and restructuring.
The reports did not give a cost for the proposals, a date for a decision, or the names of the ministries and institutions represented at the meeting.
How the reports differ
Minute Mirror alone reported that Dar asked for commercial bank financing to be examined for the Rohri-Multan section of ML-1, and named the options the meeting weighed: public-private partnerships, domestic banks and international funding institutions. 24 News HD and sabahnews.net carried only the fact that he chaired a meeting on proposals to revive and restructure the railway.
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