He further said that Prime Minister Imran Khan is heading a five-member committee which would decide the mode of investment in railways through build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.
The committee met with Mohammad Asad Ali Khan Junejo in the chair here on Thursday where Railways Ministry gave a detailed briefing on projects of Pakistan Railways under CPEC and Public Sector Development Programme (PSPD) proposals for 2019-20. The committee endorsed the demand of Rs 39.232 billion for Railways under the PSDP for the financial year 2019-20.
The railways minister said that the government intends to extend CPEC by connecting Herat, Kandahar and Taftan with Quetta as the success of Gwadar port lies in railways.
He said that Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) lack the capacity to contribute in building tracks. The committee recommended that railways tracks under the CPEC should be built in Pakistan by taking input/help from China.
Briefing the committee, the railways officials said that CPEC project of railways will consist of early harvest-ML-1 up-gradation and establishment of dry port-mid-term-establishing new rail link from Gwadar to Mastung and Besima to Jacobabad and long term projects - establishing new rail link from Havelian to Khunjrab (China border).
With the up-gradation of ML-1, train speed will increase from the current 65-105 km/hour to 120-160 km/hour, line capacity from 34 to 171 trains each way per day, freight volumes from 6 to 35 millions tonnes per annum by 2025, and railway share of freight transport volume will increase from less than 4 percent to 20 percent.
The Ministry of Railways has demanded Rs 39.232 billion for ongoing and new projects in the next Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for fiscal year 2019-20.
The ministry has demanded Rs 36.206 billion for 36 ongoing projects while Rs 3.026 billion for 7 new projects. The railways has proposed Rs 5.118 billion for rolling stock availability projects, including Rs 1.424 billion for locomotives and Rs 3.69 billion for carriage and wagons.
The ministry further proposed Rs 29.132 billion for infrastructure development, including Rs 26.44 billion for tracks and Rs 2.69 billion for signalling. It has also proposed Rs 1.522 billion for business development and Rs 432.836 million for governance related projects.
The committee was further informed that nine projects are going to be completed by June 2019. Railways proposed Rs 1 billion for procurement/manufacturing of 75 new locomotives, Rs 25 million for special repair of 150 DE locomotives and Rs 400 million for rehabilitation of 300 traction motors. The committee recommended Railways Ministry to put themselves at the disposal of Armed Forces while keeping in view the ongoing tension between Pakistan and India. Secretary railways informed the committee that strong liaison has been put in place with Interior Ministry and Armed Forces. The minister said that operation of Samjotha Express was suspended due to the ongoing situation, which may be resumed latest by Monday. He further said that China is playing role for de-escalating Pak-India tension.