Lahore: Minister of Railways, Khawaja Saad Rafique while presiding over a ceremony held at the railway headquarters on Wednesday, said that the Asian Development Bank’s long-term concessionary loan will only be acceptable if its interest rate doesn’t cross 2pc.
Currently, negotiations are underway between Pakistan Railways and ADB for a long-term concessionary loan to be extended to the former and doesn’t form part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Although ADB has given tacit approval for the loan to PR, but arbitration over what the interest rate to be charged is still ongoing. Once the loan approval is guaranteed, PR is expected to invite applications from the private sector to launch eleven new rail lines, to be laid on a build-operate transfer model.
Rafique remarked that investments from the CPEC corridor will bring a major transformation in Pakistan Railways and the track speeds would go up to peak of 180 km/hour on Main-line 1.
Recently, PR had inked agreements with Chinese ministry of transport to overhaul ML-1, which covers the Peshawar-Karachi segment and its cost is said to be estimated at around $10b. This overhaul and upgradation would include doubling of the whole track for decreasing travel times for passengers and for freight purposes too.
