Railway is the backbone of connectivity and economy of any country. Pakistan Railways got a jolt when the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) held in Islamabad on June 29 decided to defer the $6.7 billion Mainline-1 (ML-1) project. Designed under CPEC several years ago, the idea under the project was to restructure main railway line from Karachi to Peshawar by modernising tracks, signal system, coaches and engines so as to provide speedy and affordable railway facility to passengers.
The railway system in Pakistan is more than 100 years old, constructed during the British days. Since the country came into being 76 years back, the performance of railways has gone from bad to worse. The timeline of passenger trains from Karachi to Peshawar remained 24 hours. Railways also ended up with a loss of hundreds of billions of rupees over the last several decades. While making a decision at ECNEC to postpone ML-1 project its implications and ramifications should have been redeemed. Few years ago, the cost of the project was brought down from $9 billion to $ 6.7 billion compromising the speed, line capacity, rolling stock, axle load and fencing plan. Even the reduced costs of ML-1 and speed failed to convince ECNEC to launch the project at the earliest. The original project was 1,872 km long but after review it was reduced to 1,726 km. It means 240 million people of Pakistan will continue to bear the speed of less than 100 km per hour instead of the projected 160 km per hour which would have enabled passengers travelling from Karachi to Peshawar reach their destination in 10 hours.
According to reports, the project was revised by the caretaker government in October 2023. “Under the revised plan, the project consisted........