# Pakistan’s railway network to be extended to Gwadar, Kashgar under CPEC



## Shahzaz ud din

*Pakistan’s railway network to be extended to Gwadar, Kashgar under CPEC*
By
APP
-
August 18, 2019
0
45





*—1,059km railway line to be laid from Havelian in KP to Kashghar in Chinese province of Xinjiang*

*—Railway network to be extended in Afghanistan to Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif*

*ISLAMABAD:* The ambitious plan of connecting Pakistan’s railway network from China and Afghanistan to Gwadar deep sea port under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been declared strategically important by both Pakistan and China.

The plan will help commercially viable transportation of goods from China and Central Asian States to the port city, besides boosting trade and tourism activities in the country.

The already agreed CPEC project for up-gradation of existing Main Line 1 (ML-1) railway track from Peshawar to Karachi will be materialised in the first phase, followed by new railway lines that would be laid across the country to boost trade activities under CPEC.

According to the plan, a new 1,059 kilometer railway line from Havelian in Pakistan’s province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to Kashghar in Chinese province of Xinjiang would be laid to connect both the countries through railways.

Another 1,328 kilometer long new railway line from Jacobabad and Quetta via Basima to Gwadar has also been planned to be constructed at a cost of $4.5 billion to connect the port city with the rest of the country and China. Similarly, Pakistan Railways also plans to lay a new 560km railway track from Quetta to Kotla Jam on ML-2 via Zhob and DI Khan.

A new railway line from Peshawar to Torkham in Afghanistan is also part of the plan, however, in a fresh development, a source in the ministry of planning and development said that the railway network would be extended deep in the country to Kabul, and then to Mazar-e-Sharif, so that the Central Asian states could be connected via railway line with Gwadar.

All these new railway projects have been put in the long-term plan of CPEC which is supposed to be completed by 2030. “In order to effectively eventuate ML-1 project, it has been decided to break the project into three packages,” an official in the railways ministry said.

The ministry of railways has already submitted the PC-1 of Package-1 to the Planning Commission.

“Keeping in view the importance of the project, Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the authorities concerned to start work on the project as early as possible. Therefore, the PC-1 of first package of the project is expected to be considered by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) later this month which would refer to the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval,” an official in planning ministry said.

He further said that once approved by the ECNEC, this project would be presented before the 9th annual meeting of Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) on CPEC between Pakistan and China to be held in October this year for finalising financing modalities.

The scope of work includes up gradation and doubling of ML-1 from Karachi to Peshawar and Taxila to Havelian (1,872km) including provision of modern signaling and telecommunication systems, conversion of level crossings into underpasses/flyovers and fencing of the track.

CPEC project leader in Ministry of Railways Basharat Waheed said that on completion of ML-1, Pakistan Railways will reap the advantages of increase in speed from 65-105 km/hour to 120-160 km/h, increase in line capacity from 34 to 171 trains each way per day, increase in freight volumes from 6 to 35 million tons per annum by 2025, increase in passenger trains (ex-Karachi) from 20 to 40 each way per day and increase in railway share of freight transport volume from less than 4% to 20%.

Journey time from Karachi to Lahore will be reduced from existing 18 hours to only 10 hours while that from Islamabad to Lahore will be reduced from four-and-a-half hours to two-and-a-half hours, he added.

He said that the financing for the project would be arranged through a loan by the government of China. Share of Chinese loan and Pakistani government’s investment would be 85pc and 15pc respectively.

The loan will be granted on favourable terms at the rate of 2pc with a grace period of 8-10 years. As per the business plan, the loan will be paid back in 20 years, after completion of the project, from railways’ earnings.

Meanwhile, according to official documents available with APP, the project will create around 20,000 direct jobs for local people while it will also create over 150,000 indirect jobs in the country.

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## Rusty

I hope the roadmap for the railways is to electrify the entire system in the next 10 or so years. then in the next 10-30 years build a bullet train system. 

It is vital for Pakistani economy to have an efficient electrical rail system that can move goods and people.

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## Pakistansdefender

This section needs special attention. 
We need this project probably more then another project. This project depite from loan would pay itself back from its own earnings. They have time till October to finalise it and clear all the details.
In October it is finalised in jcc meet .
So they have enough time to finalise all the modalities before next jcc meet. 
Probably the most important project of cpec.

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## war&peace

Yup that I wanted since a long time

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## Chakar The Great

This is not just economically important but has a very crucial strategic importance. Proper planning is needed.

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## Verve

And there were nay-sayers claiming that CPEC has halted!

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## Foxtrot Delta

Hurry it up. Iv been waiting for 5 years now... I hope passenger trains are also being planned at some point.

By the way chinese use 21st century 2020 trains and their guage and tracks are all modern while we in pakistan still use british 1870s technology.

Both are in compatible. They should switch from 18th century to 21st century tracks

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## Clutch

Shahzaz ud din said:


> Pakistan’s province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to Kashghar in Chinese province of Xinjiang would be laid to connect both the countries through railways



This is huge... If it is actually accomplished. It will be a monumental Effort

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## Pakhtoon yum

This is going to be bigger then the karakoram highway.

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## Imran Khan

are not we already have gawadar rail link ?


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## The Accountant

Imran Khan said:


> are not we already have gawadar rail link ?


No, we dont

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## Samlee

This Should Have Been Done Way Back

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## BATMAN

This plan has my full support and i hope Sheikh Rashid would keep pinky mafia out of it.



Pakhtoon yum said:


> This is going to be bigger then the karakoram highway.


Musharraf built coastal highway despite the resistance from Bugti and Indian mafia.
Did he do some thing larger than KKH!
Now Imagine Gawadar without coastal highway!

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## Rafeh

Yes finally, india out we are in. Kabul now knows they will need us for ever.

A project of extreme strategic importance and will also increase Pakistan sphere of influence greatly. Not to mention this kind of trans-national connectivity will enhance Pakistan's external image tremendously as well as our own strategic importance in the euro-asian region. Towards that end, This line can then be connected later with trans-russian network.

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## maximuswarrior

Verve said:


> And there were nay-sayers claiming that CPEC has halted!



They wish that it was halted. If anything CPEC is going at a lightning. For Pakistan CPEC is today more crucial than ever. If for nukes we had to it grass for CPEC we will just fast and go hungry.

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## Darth Vader

Rusty said:


> I hope the roadmap for the railways is to electrify the entire system in the next 10 or so years. then in the next 10-30 years build a bullet train system.
> 
> It is vital for Pakistani economy to have an efficient electrical rail system that can move goods and people.


Bullet Trains doesnt make any sense.

Pakistan Should build a large infrastucture which can move high number of goodes and people at 150 to 250 KM
as bullet train makes sense when you have a large number of people moving daily between lets say 4 main cities
Peshwar, Islamabad , Lahore and Karachi 
If you have daily lets say daily 100,000 People moving its makes sense but if its less it wont make profit,
Goverment will have to support that it will go in loss and circle goes on,
Pakistan has 2 Options
1Upgrade Decades old infrastucture or
2 rebuild everything. 
Pakistan should build newer system keeping in sight on future growth in.
Pakistan should look for a service which provides better and cheaper service so less people use Public Buses and Airplanes.

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## maverick1977

Shahzaz ud din said:


> *Pakistan’s railway network to be extended to Gwadar, Kashgar under CPEC*
> By
> APP
> -
> August 18, 2019
> 0
> 45
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *—1,059km railway line to be laid from Havelian in KP to Kashghar in Chinese province of Xinjiang*
> 
> *—Railway network to be extended in Afghanistan to Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif*
> 
> *ISLAMABAD:* The ambitious plan of connecting Pakistan’s railway network from China and Afghanistan to Gwadar deep sea port under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been declared strategically important by both Pakistan and China.
> 
> The plan will help commercially viable transportation of goods from China and Central Asian States to the port city, besides boosting trade and tourism activities in the country.
> 
> The already agreed CPEC project for up-gradation of existing Main Line 1 (ML-1) railway track from Peshawar to Karachi will be materialised in the first phase, followed by new railway lines that would be laid across the country to boost trade activities under CPEC.
> 
> According to the plan, a new 1,059 kilometer railway line from Havelian in Pakistan’s province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to Kashghar in Chinese province of Xinjiang would be laid to connect both the countries through railways.
> 
> Another 1,328 kilometer long new railway line from Jacobabad and Quetta via Basima to Gwadar has also been planned to be constructed at a cost of $4.5 billion to connect the port city with the rest of the country and China. Similarly, Pakistan Railways also plans to lay a new 560km railway track from Quetta to Kotla Jam on ML-2 via Zhob and DI Khan.
> 
> A new railway line from Peshawar to Torkham in Afghanistan is also part of the plan, however, in a fresh development, a source in the ministry of planning and development said that the railway network would be extended deep in the country to Kabul, and then to Mazar-e-Sharif, so that the Central Asian states could be connected via railway line with Gwadar.
> 
> All these new railway projects have been put in the long-term plan of CPEC which is supposed to be completed by 2030. “In order to effectively eventuate ML-1 project, it has been decided to break the project into three packages,” an official in the railways ministry said.
> 
> The ministry of railways has already submitted the PC-1 of Package-1 to the Planning Commission.
> 
> “Keeping in view the importance of the project, Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the authorities concerned to start work on the project as early as possible. Therefore, the PC-1 of first package of the project is expected to be considered by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) later this month which would refer to the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval,” an official in planning ministry said.
> 
> He further said that once approved by the ECNEC, this project would be presented before the 9th annual meeting of Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) on CPEC between Pakistan and China to be held in October this year for finalising financing modalities.
> 
> The scope of work includes up gradation and doubling of ML-1 from Karachi to Peshawar and Taxila to Havelian (1,872km) including provision of modern signaling and telecommunication systems, conversion of level crossings into underpasses/flyovers and fencing of the track.
> 
> CPEC project leader in Ministry of Railways Basharat Waheed said that on completion of ML-1, Pakistan Railways will reap the advantages of increase in speed from 65-105 km/hour to 120-160 km/h, increase in line capacity from 34 to 171 trains each way per day, increase in freight volumes from 6 to 35 million tons per annum by 2025, increase in passenger trains (ex-Karachi) from 20 to 40 each way per day and increase in railway share of freight transport volume from less than 4% to 20%.
> 
> Journey time from Karachi to Lahore will be reduced from existing 18 hours to only 10 hours while that from Islamabad to Lahore will be reduced from four-and-a-half hours to two-and-a-half hours, he added.
> 
> He said that the financing for the project would be arranged through a loan by the government of China. Share of Chinese loan and Pakistani government’s investment would be 85pc and 15pc respectively.
> 
> The loan will be granted on favourable terms at the rate of 2pc with a grace period of 8-10 years. As per the business plan, the loan will be paid back in 20 years, after completion of the project, from railways’ earnings.
> 
> Meanwhile, according to official documents available with APP, the project will create around 20,000 direct jobs for local people while it will also create over 150,000 indirect jobs in the country.




This is huge huge news! this will make CPEC viable. Transportation is the cheapest via rail link... wow wow wow... chinese goods will just come down the slope. whereas oil shipment up karakoram will require cascaded train engines ... i cant believe i am hearing this news.. wow wow wow.. good for the people of that region..

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## Rusty

Darth Vader said:


> Bullet Trains doesnt make any sense.
> 
> Pakistan Should build a large infrastucture which can move high number of goodes and people at 150 to 250 KM
> as bullet train makes sense when you have a large number of people moving daily between lets say 4 main cities
> Peshwar, Islamabad , Lahore and Karachi
> If you have daily lets say daily 100,000 People moving its makes sense but if its less it wont make profit,
> Goverment will have to support that it will go in loss and circle goes on,
> Pakistan has 2 Options
> 1Upgrade Decades old infrastucture or
> 2 rebuild everything.
> Pakistan should build newer system keeping in sight on future growth in.
> Pakistan should look for a service which provides better and cheaper service so less people use Public Buses and Airplanes.



The beauty of bullet trains is that they make no sense until they do.

Imagine living in Lahore and going to work in Islamabad every day. 
In Japan people do those kinds of trips all the time on bullet trains. 

I am not saying they will magically work, there is a lot of feasibility work that needs to be done first but a country like Pakistan, which is long and narrow with high population is a basically meant for a bullet train

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## Darth Vader

Rusty said:


> The beauty of bullet trains is that they make no sense until they do.
> 
> Imagine living in Lahore and going to work in Islamabad every day.
> In Japan people do those kinds of trips all the time on bullet trains.
> 
> I am not saying they will magically work, there is a lot of feasibility work that needs to be done first but a country like Pakistan, which is long and narrow with high population is a basically meant for a bullet train


Until You have 100,000 People using these everyday not gone do anything will only cost the nation


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## Ultimate Weapon

Darth Vader said:


> Until You have 100,000 People using these everyday not gone do anything will only cost the nation


Can people afford the heavy fairs of high speed trains.

I don't think so. 

In Pakistan lot of people try to travel ticket free in trains.


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## Darth Vader

Ultimate Weapon said:


> Can people afford the heavy fairs of high speed trains.
> 
> I don't think so.
> 
> In Pakistan lot of people try to travel ticket free in trains.


That Depends on the daily usage and how much profit these train earn,
the less people travel, more expensive these become, Decent Bus and Train system makes much more jobs than Road or Air alternatives.
More people travel the more revenue these earns, if these are electric trains and Pakistan builds cheaper energy from renewables resources and maintence time and services cost is low thanks to low pay in Pakistan these can be pretty profitable only if you connect your 6 Main Cities.
Peshwar, Queeta , Islamabad , Lahore , Karachi and Gwadar as if these cities become business hubs with higher number of people moving daily. As Will help build the bridge between difference provinces as well.


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## haidian

If there is a country which can build this world wonder railway over the treacherous terrain and the harsh weather of the Pamir mountains, it's got to be China. We built a modern railway on the roof of the world through Himalaya mountains in Tibet over a decade ago.

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## jupiter2007

If the economy improves, people will use Trains more than Busses because Train ticket is cheaper than Busses. We should go for high speed train, not bullet train. 
We don’t have the economy to bare the cost of bullet train, at least not now. Once Gawdar city is operational, maybe then we can have bullet train between Gawdar and Karachi.


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## The Terminator

Any person that has knowledge of the current ground realities first hand is welcome to answer this simple question. 

How safe it is for a Punjabi ethnic person travel and visit to places like Gwadar, Quetta, Chaman Border etc. all alone in his Lahore/Islamabad registered number plate vehicle (Car/Bike) from Lahore/Islamabad to those places?

The perceived threats are normally the criminal gangs and thugs of Southern Punjab/Northern Sindh areas, then the insurgents, Terrorists and Anti Pakistan Baloch separatists groups who actively search for a Pakistani specially the Punjabis to cast their own anger upon their victims due to the history of wrong doings and negligence of Punjabi dominant civil, military leadership. How is the actual Law and Order situation in those areas for tourists and persons seeking Business opportunities there as these areas have the pivotal role in the ongoing multi billion dollar CPEC project


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## War Thunder

Rusty said:


> I hope the roadmap for the railways is to electrify the entire system in the next 10 or so years. then in the next 10-30 years build a bullet train system.
> 
> It is vital for Pakistani economy to have an efficient electrical rail system that can move goods and people.




And that electric system will electrify our own children during floods and rains.
We need a lot of fixes in many places before everything works the way it does in developed countries.

Orange metro and whatever metros are coming up and knowing our society, I can only wonder whats gonna happen to our sisters and mothers during rush hours...

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## Pakhtoon yum

The Terminator said:


> Any person that has knowledge of the current ground realities first hand is welcome to answer this simple question.
> 
> How safe it is for a Punjabi ethnic person travel and visit to places like Gwadar, Quetta, Chaman Border etc. all alone in his Lahore/Islamabad registered number plate vehicle (Car/Bike) from Lahore/Islamabad to those places?
> 
> The perceived threats are normally the criminal gangs and thugs of Southern Punjab/Northern Sindh areas, then the insurgents, Terrorists and Anti Pakistan Baloch separatists groups who actively search for a Pakistani specially the Punjabis to cast their own anger upon their victims due to the history of wrong doings and negligence of Punjabi dominant civil, military leadership. How is the actual Law and Order situation in those areas for tourists and persons seeking Business opportunities there as these areas have the pivotal role in the ongoing multi billion dollar CPEC project


As safe as any of the locals, dont spread false propaganda boi

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## The Terminator

Pakhtoon yum said:


> As safe as any of the locals, dont spread false propaganda boi


I have no intentions to spread any propaganda as I am planning to travel to those places myself any time in future and required a bit of travel advisory from informed persons as there had been incidents reported in the past decade or so of abductions/killings of persons who were not locals there by some terrorists and foreign funded and foreign motivated persons in far off tribal areas where security forces, Government writ was almost non existent.

But after successful operations like Zarb e Azb, Rad ul Fasaad and previous Ops too, securing and fencing our borders by security forces and limiting foreign (specially US deep state) interferences, exposing and culminating RAW proxies and Kalbhushan Yadav's network etc. have greatly helped in making Pakistan more secure and peaceful not just for its own citizens but for foreign tourists as well.

I only tried to get the latest updates of the ground realities by someone really knowledgeable and have experienced it first hand rather than any media (both local and international) bullshit they often portray about our country.

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## Pakhtoon yum

The Terminator said:


> I have no intentions to spread any propaganda as I am planning to travel to those places myself any time in future and required a bit of travel advisory from informed persons as there had been incidents reported in the past decade or so of abductions/killings of persons who were not locals there by some terrorists and foreign funded and foreign motivated persons in far off tribal areas where security forces, Government writ was almost non existent.
> 
> But after successful operations like Zarb e Azb, Rad ul Fasaad and previous Ops too, securing and fencing our borders by security forces and limiting foreign (specially US deep state) interferences, exposing and culminating RAW proxies and Kalbhushan Yadav's network etc. have greatly helped in making Pakistan more secure and peaceful not just for its own citizens but for foreign tourists as well.
> 
> I only tried to get the latest updates of the ground realities by someone really knowledgeable and have experienced it first hand rather than any media (both local and international) bullshit they often portray about our country.


U stated the obvious


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