Govt considers railway links with central Asia

By Fida Hussain

ISLAMABAD: The federal government will take up 53 development schemes for approval that include the launching of projects to locate uranium in the district of Bannu and Kohat and to conduct a feasibility study on the laying of a railway track to link Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Central Asian Republic of Turkmenistan, said a senior government official.

The project to lay a railway track is aimed at linking the ports in Gwadar and Karachi with Central Asia and beyond to boost trade between the respective states, the official said. The trade through Gwadar port will benefit Pakistan as the port was built keeping regional states in mind.

The official said the federal and provincial ministries would discuss the PC-Is of the 53 projects at a meeting of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) of the Planning and Development Division which is scheduled to meet on Monday.

The official said the meeting of the CDWP, which will be presided over by the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Dr Akram Sheikh, will discuss the project of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) that seeks government approval for the launching of a detailed exploration project to find uranium in Bannu basin and Kohat plateau in the NWFP.

According to him, the ministry of railways thought Pakistan could be linked with Central Asia and beyond by linking the southern Afghan city of Kandahar with the western city of Herat and Khushka (Turkmenistan) through a much needed rail track through this project.

Since landlocked Afghanistan has no railways system, Pakistan will need to lay a rail link of around 1000 km between Kandahar and Herat upto Khushka as Turkmenistan and other regional countries have an adequate rail system. The Kandahar-Khushka rail link will link Pakistan with to the rail links already available in the region. The government is also planning to link Chaman, the city nearest to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan through the Quetta railway track. Islamabad has also hinted that it is eager to link Chaman and Kandahar, just over 120 kms away from Pakistan border.

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