Tender For ML1 Railway Track To Be Issued Next Month: Sheikh Rashid

Tender for ML1 railway track to be issued next month: Sheikh Rashid

Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Monday said tender for construction of 1875 kilometer long Main Line-1 (ML-1) from Karachi to Peshawar would be issued next month

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jan, 2020 ) :Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Monday said tender for construction of 1875 kilometer long Main Line-1 (ML-1) from Karachi to Peshawar would be issued next month.

Speaking in the Senate, he said the project would be completed in five years and the train speed on its track would be increased from 80 to 160 kilometer per hour.

He said this railway line would be signal free, without crossings and people could go over it through overhead bridges and underpasses.

He assured the house that the most senior person would be appointed the chief executive officer of Pakistan Railways.

He said no investment was made in the infrastructure of railways since it was established by the British government in 1861.

The minister said mainline project would change the railways, adding one million passengers had travelled on trains, 24 new trains were run and railways earned an extra Rs 10 billion in a year.

While giving details of performance of the railways, he said the revenue target of railways was raised from Rs 53 billion to Rs 58 billion.

More freight trains were plied to increase revenue of railways, he said and told that son of a railway guard had gifted tracking system to railways which could cost millions of rupees if bought from the market.

He said 383 acres railways land was vacated from land grabbers and 3.5 million liters of oil was saved with efficient operations.

A 75 year old person could travel on railways four times in a year and 65 year old person could get discount of 50 percent on travelling.

He said new dry ports would be opened in different parts of the country.

Rs one billion would be saved by installing electricity meters in railway colonies, he added.

The minister said that the provincial government should provide security for the Harnai track in Balochistan which was ready for train operations.

Senator Faisal Javed told the Senate that Pakistan Television, Radio Pakistan and other departments were running in deficit due to the previous governments.

He said Pakistan Television had become independent and had given equal coverage to the government and opposition.

He said ptv was the representative of our culture and heritage, adding the issue of its revenue was linked to credibility which would earn it revenues and ratings.

The government had taken measures to revive PTV which would launch new programmes in the next month, he added.

He said PTV needed to invest in digital technology and move away from analog to improve the quality of its broadcast.

He agreed with the movers of the motion Senators Usman Kakar, Gul Bashra and Abida Azeem that PTV had to significantly improve its quality to compete with the private sector media.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Swati told that the revenue of PTV was increased from Rs one billion to Rs three billion. He said PTV had always given priority to projecting the cultural values of society and promote scenic landscape of Pakistan.