The federal government has commissioned a feasibility study for a dedicated freight railway corridor (1250 Kms) at an estimated cost of Rs 291 million for transportation of coal from Karachi to Lahore for coal power plants in Punjab. The unit cost of the proposed feasibility study is Rs 0.313 million/km which is very high in comparison to the per km cost of Rs 0.09 million/km in an earlier PC-I considered by Planning Commission a few months ago on ''Feasibility Study to Connect Gwadar with Karachi through a rail link (700 km).
Additionally, the Feasibility Study of a rail link from Gwadar to Besima and Besima to Jacobabad via Khuzdar (1,048 km) was Rs 0.21 million/km. The high unit cost in the instant case should be justified. According to documents available with Business Recorder, the railway track would be completed in 12 months and the cost per km is estimated at Rs 0.313 million. The government intends to fund the entire project through domestic resources. The project envisages a feasibility study for provision of two additional lines between Keamari to Lahore to provide new railway link of broad gauge having PCS concrete sleepers and 60 kg UIC rails. The link will be capable of transporting freight and coal at a speed of 160 km per hour from Karachi port to upcountry.
The objective of the study is to assess the existing line capacity of Main Line track on Keamari-Karachi-Lahore section (1250 Kms) for additional dedicated freight tracks along with a new rail link between Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT), Port Qasim, and existing railway network along with other improvement in infrastructure en route to meet the coal transportation and other future freight requirements.
The estimated quantity of coal of more than 118,000 tons per day will have to be transported from port to each power plant for which Pakistan Railways has committed. In addition to this, the government is also planning to install small coal power plants in different regions of the country and the majority of these plants will be located along this corridor. The efficient transportation of coal is extremely important to meet the energy requirement of the country.
Energy Department, Government of Pakistan is also planning to install as many as 11 small coal fired power plants at Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, Lahore, Sialkot, Bahawalpur, Kasur, Vehari and Sargodha - plants which would require coal for fuel. It is estimated that 0.5 million tons per annum each for 11 small coal fired power plants coal would require to be transported.
To handle coal, Port Qasim Authorities (PQA) has decided that all the coal imports for thermal power plants will be handled through Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT). Railway track linkage with the existing network either with railway line from Port Muhammad Bin Qasim to Bin Qasim railway stations or with the main line track from Keamari to Lahore may be provided. The existing area has many constraints for this track linkage which will also be covered in this proposed feasibility study.
According to sources in the Ministry of Railways, the proposed study will assess the existing lines and possibility/requirement for construction/provision of new rail links for transportation of freight and coal for the coal fired power plants to be established in various districts of Punjab and Sindh, in the coming years. They said that a number of projects are ongoing for upgradation/improvement of the track and signalling system of existing ML-l of Pakistan Railways in order to improve its capacity of transporting coal for the three major power coal fired power plants to be established in Jamshoro, Karam Dad Qureshi (Muzaffargargh), Qadirabad (Sahiwal) in the next three years.
The sources said that the feasibility study under the framework of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project (CPEC) is already on-going for up gradation and improvement of ML-l and it would also assess the existing ML-l for future requirements of transportation of freight and other bulk goods.
The sources said that additional 11 coal-fired power plants are being planned in the country, however, at the instant only 3 priority plants are proposed to be completed by end 2017 ie Qadirabad Power plant near Sahiwal, Muzaffargarh power plant near Karam Dad Qureshi and Jamshoro power plant near Kotri, at Akhond Abad. A phase-wise coal logistic and business plan may be provided keeping in view the most realistic requirement of freight and coal in future instead of hypothetical demands, they said.
According to documents, an amount of Rs 33.228 million has been proposed for Establishment of Project Management Unit (PMU) for Pakistan Railways. Pakistan Railways has already initiated a project titled "Project Management Unit in Ministry of Railways" at a cost of Rs 954.389 million.
An amount of Rs 31 million has been claimed for cost of vehicles, POL & travel costs for field offices under "Direct Costs" wherein, an amount of Rs 5.9 million has been proposed for purchase of 4 vehicles (3 1000 CC & I 1300 CC) in addition to POL charges under PMU. According to the Vision 2025, Government of Pakistan has planned to increase the share of Railways in national freight from 4% (6 billion tons kilometres) to 22%.