ML-1 railway track project to be completed during current tenure

Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad has claimed that the new ML-1 railway track project would be completed during the tenure of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government.
“We have full confidence in accomplishing the task of laying down a new track from Karachi to Peshawar before ending the period of this government,” he said in a private TV program.
ML-1 project was signed some fourteen years back and how he hoped that the mega railway project would provide a fast and comfortable traveling facility to the people of the country.
It merits mentioning that the Executive committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has already approved the project with the cost of $6.806 billion from Peshawar to Karachi (1872 KMs) including Havelian Dry Port and upgrading Walton Academy.
The project would cost $6.806 billion. According to the ministry of finance, the execution of the project shall be in 3 packages, and to avoid commitment charges, the loan amount for each package will be separately contracted.
Under this project existing 2,655 KM track will be upgraded. The speed of passenger trains shall increase from 65/110 KM/h to 165 KM/h and line capacity will increase from 34 to 137/171 trains each way per day.
Also, the project has a project steering committee for effective supervision and implementation of the project.
The line is 1,872 km long, including the 55 km long Taxila-Havelian section and 91 km long Lodhran-Khanewal section.
The project envisages upgrade of ML-1, the establishment of a dry port near Havelian Railway Station; upgrade of Pakistan Railway Academy Walton in Lahore; passenger facilities development of important railway stations, including Karachi, Hyderabad, and Rohri in Sindh;
Multan, Lahore, and Rawalpindi in Punjab and Naushehra and Peshawar in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.