Delays in ML-1 approval process

The Railway Ministry has sent the final copy of the of multi-billion dollars 1750 kilometer long Karachi-Peshawar Mainline ML-1 project to the Planning Ministry to get it through from the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) for onward transmission and approval by Executive Committee of National Economic Council(ECNEC). But top bureaucracy in the Planning Ministry seems reluctant to fast track the approval phase in the CDWP. It may be recalled that last PML-N government had agreed to $8.2 billion construction cost of ML-1 to be financed by Chinese financers under the umbrella of CPEC. Last year, the Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad had said in a private TV programme “G for Gharida” that the cost estimate of the project was on high side and hinted at likely efforts for reduction in the cost of construction.

In the tenure of previous government, Pakistan Railway had been asked to shoulder the burden of loans being acquired for the project which like other Chinese loans were  to be high interest bearing. The huge financial losses incurring Public Utility Organisation expressed inability to do so and informed that the federal government itself should raise loans for the project.

It is no longer a secret that the principle of transparency and criteria of cost-benefit analysis was never observed while agreeing to cost estimates and loans sought far at high interest rates for CPEC related projects. Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules grossly violated and the canon of international bidding was not taken into account. The highly inflated construction cost of certain road projects, Capital Expenditures and per unit tariffs agreed for coal based thermal and hydropower projects are the classic examples.  The increasing scrutiny of ongoing CPEC project by the National Accountability Bureau and likely probe in a road project may have irked the Planning Ministry bureaucracy to resort to delaying tactics in getting CDWP approval for ML-1. The issue of bureaucratic hurdles has been discussed by the Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad with Planning Minister MakhdoomKhusroBakhtiar. He has proposed the vetting of the Nitti Gritty of the project by newly constituted National Development Council. But the fact remains that the Chinese are very tough bargainers and they may have not given nod to the lowering of cost estimates earlier agreed with the previous government.

Railway communication has both transportation and strategic importance. Neighbouring country India has modernized its railway system that it inherited from the British rule over the Subcontinent. But on the contrary, Pakistan did not even fully maintain the narrow gauge railway track and signaling system. Railway communication has become rag-tag which is manifest from the increasing frequency of railway accidents over the past few years. The big and small bridges, on which the mainline passes, have outlived their normal life and have become risky for the railway traffic. The caving in of a bridge on a canal near Wazirabad and falling of passenger bogy into deep water should have served a lesson for giving top priority to the up-gradation and refurbishment of main railway track. In the PML-N governments major thrust was on building motor ways at the cost of modernization of railway communication network. The approval of Mainline ML-1 project at the relevant forums seems inevitable. Railway modernization will not benefit the cash strapped Pakistan alone. It will also bring dividends to China in regional and international trade. Hopefully, being financer of this project the Chinese will agree to downward revision of cost estimates of the ML-1project.

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