PM Shehbaz Sharif pushes faster ML-1 upgrade and corporate reforms for Pakistan Railways

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a Pakistan Railways session, lauding the National Accountability Bureau and the Ministry of Railways for recovering railway land and urging the Main Line-1 (ML-1) upgrade to proceed swiftly. He stressed that the project should be financed commercially by leveraging railway land worth billions of rupees and directed officials to submit a detailed commercial-potential plan within two weeks.

The 1,726-kilometre ML-1 corridor, divided into Karachi-Rohri, Rohri-Multan, Multan-Lahore and Lahore-Peshawar sections, will use international financing for the first segment while domestic sources will fund the rest. Civil works on the 480-km Karachi-Rohri/Sukkur stretch are slated to start in January 2027 and should finish in about three years, enhancing a route that carries the majority of passenger and freight traffic.

The Asian Development Bank is finalising a $1.1 billion facility to support the Karachi-Rohri upgrade through 2040. Corporate-style reforms aim to make Pakistan Railways economically self-sufficient.