Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday directed the authorities concerned to expedite work on the upgradation of Main Line-1 (ML-1) and implement corporate-style reforms in Pakistan Railways to make it strong and economically self-sufficient. The prime minister, chairing a review meeting on reforms in Pakistan Railways here, said that ML-1 should be constructed on a commercial basis by utilising the encroached railway land worth billions of rupees.

He appreciated the efforts of the joint teams of the National Accountability Bureau and the Ministry of Railways, under the chairmanship of the NAB Chairman, regarding the identification and retrieval of encroached land belonging to Pakistan Railways. He said that the upgradation of ML-1 was vital to uplift Pakistan Railways, provide better travel facilities to passengers, and increase freight transport, stressing the need to harness the actual commercial potential existing in railway properties.

The prime minister said that valuable railway land should be used effectively for commercial purposes to support the development of the national economy and railways. He said that introducing corporate-style reforms in the railways was among the government's priorities to make it strong and economically self-sufficient. Appreciating Minister for Railways Hanif Abbasi for striving to make railways profitable and improve its operations, the prime minister approved utilising bank funding through various commercial projects on railway land for the construction of ML-1.

Prime Minister Shehbaz instructed that a comprehensive strategy regarding the commercial utilisation of retrieved railway land and obtaining bank funding for the construction of ML-1 be submitted within two weeks. The meeting was informed that the upgradation of the 1,726-kilometre-long ML-1 has been divided into four major sections, comprising Karachi-Rohri, Rohri-Multan, Multan-Lahore, and Lahore-Peshawar sections. The international financing is being utilised for the upgradation of the Karachi-Rohri section, while local resources are planned to be used to fund other sections.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)