Groundbreaking of $9b ML-I Project within six months.

Islamabad -- Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar said significant progress has been achieved over $9 billion ML-I Project during the JCC meeting and claimed that the groundbreaking of the project will take place within next six months.

The 9th meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of the CPEC has not included any new project in the CPEC portfolio, however signed three MoUs. Talking to media after the 9th JCC meeting the federal planning minister said that fencing of Afghan border is in progress which will be completed next year while fencing of the Pak-Iran border will start soon, he added.

The JCC meeting was held on Tuesday here which was co-chaired by Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar and Vice Chairman National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Ning Jizhe. Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal Khan, Chief Minister KP Mahmood Khan, Chief Minister GB Hafiz Hafeez-ur-Rehman, federal ministers and secretaries, Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing, provincial secretaries, visiting Chinese delegates and representatives of leading companies were also present. The financing of $9 billion ML-I project, financing of western corridor, revival plan of Pakistan Steel Mills, agriculture cooperation and provincial development including Karachi Circular Railway discussed in the meeting. Earlier the JCC meeting was scheduled to be held on November 6 but on the request of Chinese delegation the meeting was held on November 5.

During the proceedings, a ceremony was held wherein Multan-Sukkur Motorway of the eastern corridor was inaugurated. Gwadar Master Plan was approved and signed. The ceremony also witnessed the signing of two MoUs; one between All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and Ministry of Planning for further strengthening the worker exchanges and another on Healthcare between Ministry of Health and Research Development International (RDI).

Later, addressing a joint press conference, Khusro Bakhtyar said significant progress has been made on ML-1 project of Pakistan Railways and it has been decided to speed up work on it to launch ground breaking in next six months. He said in this regard a committee has been constituted to evaluate financing terms and conditions.

He said the energy projects portfolio was about $12 billion out of which projects worth $4.2 billion are in progress and will be completed by 2021 while new energy projects of 6390MW would be launched in future. He said 300MW power plant...