Moazzam Ali Ghurki, CEO of Intute (Pvt.) Ltd. and President of the Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI), has urged that construction on the Mainline-1 (ML-1) railway project begin as soon as possible.
ML-1 sits within the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the broader initiative connecting Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s Gwadar Port and centered on energy, transport, and industrial cooperation. Mr. Ghurki noted that the project involves upgrading a 1,163-mile colonial-era railway line between Karachi and Peshawar into a high-speed rail corridor.
Fang Yulong, Senior Vice President of PCJCCI, added that Pakistan had agreed to revise the project’s cost from US $6.8 billion to US $9.85 billion, in line with terms raised by Chinese negotiators.
The $10 billion Mainline-1 project has since been approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) and remains one of CPEC’s flagship undertakings, with plans to eventually extend the corridor’s reach toward Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
