Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said that groundbreaking of upgradation of Railway's Main Line (ML-1) project is likely to be performed in April this year for which agreement on all technical matters and prerequisite requirements were made between Pakistan and China during a recent visit of a federal government's delegation to China.

He was addressing media after chairing a meeting of Coordination Committee on China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) here.

The minister said that upgradation of ML-1 was the largest railways project in the history of the country for which total cost was estimated at US$ 8.2 billion and this project was likely to be completed in four years.

The minister said framework agreement for the project had already been completed while financing terms would be finalized in March as Railways and Chinese sides were engaged on it, while both sides had already agreed on the cost of the project.

He said because huge money was involved in the project, therefore it w take time and will be completed in phases.

Under the project the railway track from Karachi to Peshawar would be dualized and the line would be extended up to Landi Kotal in next phase.

On completion of the project, speed of trains would be enhanced to 160 km per hour from existing 80 km per hour. Regarding Karachi Circular Railways (KCR) project, Ahsan Iqbal said the federal government had cleared the project from all phases of CPEC and had got approval from Chinese side as well. Now, he said the matter was between Sindh and Chinese government.

“The federal government has provided all facilitation to Sindh government and now I hope that the Sindh government will finalize financing as soon as possible,” the minister said. In addition, he said, during the recent visit of the delegation, an agreement was also made between the two sides on Karakoram Phase-2 from Thahkot to Raikot and work on that project would be started immediately.

Furthermore, talks on financing for two projects on Western Route- (Yarik-Zob and Basima-Khuzdar) were in process and the financing terms would be agreed as soon as possible. “However, in today's meeting National Highways Authority (NHA) was directed to immediately start land acquisition work of these project without waiting for finalizing of financing,” he informed.

He said on western route of CPEC, keeping in view the future plan for expansion of roads from 2 to 4 lanes and from 4 to 8 lanes, the land acquisition would be started now to avoid any  difficulty in future.

He informed that 95 percent work on Gwadar-Khuzdar-Ratodero Road had been completed and the remaining would be completed within a month.

Regarding industrial zones he said, “We have decided to organize about three roadshows in China to make the Chinese investors aware of the advantages of establishing industries in Pakistan.”

He said on January 29 and 30, first ever Gwadar Expo was going to be held in Gwadar in which international investors would participate.

He said the expo would be a milestone for not only Gwadar city, but for the whole country, because it would help boost CPEC and make Gwadar state-of-the-art international port city.

He informed that the new Islamabad airport would be inaugurated in March. 

To a question, the minister said that he respected former minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, however raising of difference of opinion did not show that we have any differences.

He said “We need to attract more and more foreign investors which needs visa reforms and we do not want to create unnecessary barriers that could potentially harm Pakistan's journey to development.”

He however said that visas would not be extended to any person who would be potentially harmful to the country's security.

To another question, Ahsan Iqbal said now Pakistan is rising, however in 2013, it was sinking. He hoped that by seeing rapid development in the country and best performance of PML-N government, the people of the country would vote for the party in 2018 as well for ensuring country's further development.