FAISALABAD - The government must consider linking Faisalabad with ML-1 for safe and speedy transportation of import and export consignments to seaports and to upcountry borders for its onward dispatch to various export destinations. This was demanded by Imran Mahmood Sheikh, senior vice president of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI). Addressing the FCCI Standing Committee on Railways, he said that Faisalabad had emerged as a major industrial, commercial, business and export hub of Pakistan. “Currently, it has a single railway track to link it with Khanewal and Shahdara and to have access to the main railway line,” he said and added that the FCCI would consult the government and chairman CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] in particular to include Faisalabad in the proposed mega project of ML-1. Mirza Hidayatullah, chairman standing committee, said that ML-1, ML-2 and ML-3 railway lines have been proposed under CPEC to link Peshawar with Karachi via Multan. He said that under this mega project 720 railway level crossings on existing railway tracks would be eliminated and replaced with 2,445 small and big overhead bridges. “In some places under passes would also be constructed while its surrounding areas would be fully fenced to discourage the movement of people on railway track,” he added. He regretted that Faisalabad had been ignored in the project, though a large number of industrial units were being established in that city by the Chinese individually or as joint ventures, and they need direct link with ML-1 for movement of their import and export consignments. Mirza also pointed out that a railway level crossing near Chenab Mills had been closed permanently which was causing problems for the industrialists as well as the general public. He demanded immediate opening of this crossing in the best public interest. The meeting was also attended by Farooq Ahmed, Mirza Zahid Iqbal, Shahid Nazir, Javed Akhtar, Shakeel Rehman, Malik Azam and Junaid Mahmood Baig.