Lahore-Peshawar railway track to be dualised in next five years

ISLAMABAD, Mar 28 (APP):Pakistan Railways has planned to dualise Railway track between Lahore to Peshawar via Rawalpindi under China Pakistan Economic corridor (CPEC) in next five years.

“Main Line-1 (ML-I) from Karachi to Peshawar via Lahore would be upgraded under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which includes up-gradation of the entire railway line,” an official in the Ministry of Railways told APP. 

However, around 789 kilometer track has been partially rehabilitated through complete track renewal, sleeper renewal and rail renewal under different Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), he said adding that the Pakistan Railways has rehabilitated the tracks by removing temporary speed restrictions and increasing speeds for ensuring sustainable train operation across the country.

“The rehabilitation work was carried out on 14 different routes in all the provinces, under various PSDP projects,” he added.

Giving province-wise detail of the rehabilitated track, he said 397.05 km track has already been rehabilitated in Punjab, 215.60 km in Sindh, 23.69 km in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 153.00 km in Balochistan. 

The routes included Karachi-Hyderabad, Kotri-Dadu, Dera Murad Jamali-Sibi, Khanpur-Multan, Lodhran-Pakpattan, Faisalabad-Sheikhupura, Multan-Lahore, Lahore-Lalamusa, Peshawar-Attock City, Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Multan-Kot Addu, Kot Addu-Mianwali, Sibi-Khost and Hyderabad-Rohri- Khanpur, he added.

To a query, he said restoration of 134 km long track and other allied works on Sibi-Khost line was near completion.

He said Quetta-Taftan section was part of ML-III and feasibility study for its up-gradation is under process, which would be completed soon.

“This section has been earmarked for up-gradation under public and private partnership on build–operate–transfer (BOT) basis as well,” the official said.