ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad has said that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) is likely to approve the Main Line-1 (ML-1) project this month.
While addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Friday, the minister said that the ML-1 track will help control railways accidents and generate jobs for hundreds and thousands of youth.
Sheikh Rasheed said that it will be a crossing free track which will reduce travel time from Karachi to Lahore to seven hours while it will take two hours from Rawalpindi to Lahore.
The railways minister said that Main Line-1 will enable trains to run at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour which can be further extended to 200 kilometers per hour.
The minister said that ML-1 is a revolutionary project to be completed by the PTI Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (government) and will revamp the entire structure of Pakistan Railways.
Furthermore, he said that 10 percent of technical staff like engineers will come from China while the rest of the workforce will be from Pakistan to accomplish the project.
Sheikh Rasheed said that the multibillion-project will be completed from five to eight years with Chinese help.
