Islamabad, November 03, 2021: The 24th meeting of the Standing Committee on Railways was held today at 12:00 noon in the Committee Room of Divisional Superintendent Office, Karachi under the Chairmanship of Mr. Muhammad Mueen Wattoo, MNA.
The Committee pointed out that ML-I project is continued since its formation and every time, Railways briefed that the project would be launched soon but it is still wondering in the files and no ground progress. Even, Railways informed the Committee in the beginning of 2020 that Chinese loan have been approved and the ground breaking of the project would be launched but still waiting.
The Chief Executive Officer informed the Committee that all the technical issues related to ML-I project have been settled. Preliminary design of the project and tender documents of package-I for hiring of contractor ready. Upon the question of the Committee Members, he briefed that negotiation for Chinese loan about package-I is in progress and hopefully finalized in December, 2021. The tentative for ground breaking of package-I of the project would be July, 2022.
The CEO informed that CCTV cameras are installed to watch the auction process and weighing of auction material for contractor who won the tender as replied on the question of the Committee Members. He informed that the Committee can be invited to look into the auction process as and when auction tender floated by Pakistan Railways. The Committee agreed to nominate one or two Members to look into the auction process. The Committee recommended that scrape policy must looked into its mechanism of auction if scrape should be in accordance with the market rate but revenue generated through auction of scrap was reduced in 2019-20. Later, the Committee visited the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) Project.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Muhammad Basheer Khan, Sheikh Rashid Shafique, Mr. Aftab Jehangir, Ms. Nusrat Wahid, Engr. Sabir Hussain Kaim Khani, Ch. Muhammad Hamid Hameed, Mr. Muhammad Khan Daha, and Mr. Abdul Wasay, Hon. MNAs. The senior officers from Minister of Railways, Pakistan Railways and Railways Police were also present in the meeting.