Pre-feasibility study completed for Pak-China rail link

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Railways Hail Ghulam Ahmad Bilour informed the National Assembly that Pakistan Railways has two proposals under consideration for Railway links with Afghanistan at Chaman-Spinbuldak border to connect Kandahar and Pak-China rail link from Havelian to Chinese border via Khunjrab Pass.

Bilour told the house in response to a question raised by MNAs including Fauzia Wahab, Muhammad Asad Khan, Yasmeen Rehman and Shereen Arshad Khan, that the PC-I for Chaman Spinbuldak (Afghanistan bordering town) rail link was completed with the cost of Rs 417 million in June 2004 and the project was to be executed by M/s Railcop, however, work could not be started due to non-issuance of NOC by Afghanistan government. The revised cost of PC-l is now assessed Rs 943.00 million, he added.

He said that the Pak-China Rail link pre-feasibility study has been completed through two consulting firms M/s L.L.F of German-Austria and M/s Don fang Electric Corporation (DEC) of China and following route has been recommended for detailed feasibility.

Havelian-AbbotAbad - Batagram - Thakot-Bridge-Bèsham-Pattan -Dassu-Chillas - Gilgit-Karimabad - Sost-Mintaka Pass. The length of this route is 662 km and tentative cost is US $10.237 billion to be completed in 15 years, he informed.

He told the house the Line Tracking System (LTS) project will be completed during the current fiscal year with a cost of Rs 40 million.

The project cost of the LTS will be provided by the Electronic Government Directorate (EDG) of the Ministry of Information Technology, the Minister informed the house while responding to a question raised by Fauzia Wahab, PPP MNA.

He said that with the completion of this project PR will be in a position to upgrade its manual train controlling system and turn to computerised form of monitoring.

This will also help in making effective planning and plotting of the path of trains, besides increasing line capacity due to effective time management, he added. Bilour informed the house that completion of LTS will also help in tracking of all passenger and freight trains.