Islamabad October 12 2022: Parliamentary Secretary for Railways Kiran Imran Dar on Wednesday informed the National Assembly that the first fleet of 20 state-of-the-art coaches from China would arrive Pakistan at the end of October 2022.
During the question hour, she said Pak Railways procured 230 new passenger coaches from China to provide comfortable journeys to the passengers as per international standards.
She said Pakistan Railways was rigorously perusing ML- 1 project under CPEC to upgrade its track which was delayed during the last four years.
The speed of the train, she said, will increase from 65- 105km/h to 120 – 160km/h. The journey time will be reduced by half after the implementation of this project.
ML-1 project is the Up-gradation and Doubling of Main Line-1 (ML-1) from Karachi to Peshawar and Taxila to Havelian (1733 km) with Laying of a new track with improved subgrade for 160 km/h and provision of Modern Signaling & Telecom Systems.
The project is estimated to cost USD 6,806 million and will create 24,000 jobs opportunities, according to government studies.
She said the signaling system of 44 stations had been automated by Computer Based Interlocking (CBI) over Shandadpur-Mirpur, Mathelo and Lodhran- Shandara Bagh sections. This has considerably improved punctuality owing to swift operation in the automated section.