ISLAMABAD-The feasibility study for the construction of train link between Pakistan and Afghanistan will be completed by June 2021, it was learnt reliably here Wednesday.
The feasibility study of the proposed railway track of more than 140km between Peshawar-Jalalabad will be completed at the cost of Rs 67 million, official sources told The Nation here. The aim of the feasibility is to get the measure of estimated passenger and freight between Peshawar and Jalalabad.
The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Wednesday issued authorisation for the release of Rs549 million for two projects in Afghanistan under the government of Pakistan development assistance to Afghanistan.
The projects included the feasibility of train link between Peshawar and Jalalabad and health sector. For the feasibility study, Rs 60.9 million and for three hospitals including Jinnah Hospital Kabul, Nishtar Kidney Center in Jalalabad and 100-beded Naeb Aminullah Khan Hospital in Logar Rs 488 million were released.
The establishment of train link between Peshawar and Jalalabad was initially conceived in 2010, during the PPP tenure, however was not materilialized due to various technical and financial reasons. Following the then Afghan president Hamid Karzai visit to Pakistan in 2010, MoU was signed between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The source said that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also wants to add Peshawar to Torkham rail track to proposed ML-I project under CPEC portfolio. Beside a train track was already existed till Landikotal which can be upgraded and extended to Afghan border.
The feasibility study would be completed in next five months, hopefully by June 2021, after which the process the construction work will commence, the source said.
Funds for three hospitals, constructed with Pakistan’s financial help, have been released to buy equipments. Jinnah Hospital Kabul, Nishtar Kidney Center in Jalalabad and 100-bedded Naeb Aminullah Khan Hospital were built by Pakistan
It is worth mentioning here that in April 2019 the government of Pakistan had officially handed over the Kabul-based Jinnah Hospital to Afghanistan. Jinnah Hospital was completed at a cost of $24 million and now the government of Pakistan has released additional amount to three Pakistani built hospitals in Afghanistan.