CPEC: Govt urged to link Faisalabad with ML-1 for speedy transportation

Faisalabad: A top Pakistani trade body has urged the government to consider linking Faisalabad with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)’s Main Line 1 (ML-1) railway project for safe and speedy transportation of import and export consignments.

Imran Mahmood Sheikh, senior vice president of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) said this step will ensure speedy transportation of import and export consignments to seaports and to upcountry borders for its onward dispatch to various export destinations.

Addressing the FCCI Standing Committee on Railways here, he mentioned that that Faisalabad had emerged as a major industrial, commercial, business and export hub of Pakistan.

“Currently, it has a single railway track to link it with Khanewal and Shahdara and to have access to the main railway line. The FCCI will consult the government and the CPEC Authority in particular to include Faisalabad in the proposed mega project of ML-1,” Sheikh maintained.

Mirza Hidayatullah, chairman FCCI standing committee on Railways, explained that ML-1, ML-2 and ML-3 railway lines had been proposed under CPEC to link Peshawar with Karachi via Multan.

He added that under this mega project 720 railway level crossings on existing railway tracks would be eliminated and replaced with 2,445 small and big overhead bridges.

“In some places under passes would also be constructed while its surrounding areas would be fully fenced to discourage the movement of people on railway track,” he remarked.

Hidayatullah pointed out that a large number of industrial units were being established in Faisalabad by the Chinese investors individually or as joint ventures and they needed direct link with ML-1 for movement of their import and export consignments.

The meeting was also attended by known businesspersons Farooq Ahmed, Mirza Zahid Iqbal, Shahid Nazir, Javed Akhtar, Shakeel Rehman, Malik Azam and Junaid Mahmood Baig.