Pakistan gets Chinese approval for $2 billion rail upgrade to transport mine exports — minister
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has secured Chinese approval to proceed with a $2 billion Asian Development Bank (ADB)-financed upgrade of the Karachi–Rohri railway line, a critical link needed to transport copper and gold from the giant Reko Diq mine to export hubs, Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi told Arab News this week.
Abbasi’s remarks confirm details of a financing arrangement earlier announced by Islamabad and Beijing as part of a wider $7 billion consortium for the Main Line-1 (ML-1) project, covering Pakistan’s 1,726-kilometer colonial-era railway from Karachi to Peshawar.
The ML-1 upgrade is the largest infrastructure scheme under the over $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), itself part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. China originally pledged $6.67 billion for the project in 2016, but financing has stalled for nearly a decade.
On Sept. 8, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan and China had agreed to form a consortium including ADB, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the two governments to fund ML-1. Reuters separately reported last month, citing unnamed sources, that ADB was in advanced talks to lead a $2 billion Karachi–Rohri upgrade after prolonged Chinese delays.
