11-16-2006, 05:19 AM
<b>Railways short lists 2 cos for China rail link study</b>
<b>LAHORE â Pakistan Railways management has short listed two companies one from China and another a joint German-Austrian company for the study of the 1,000-km track from Havelian upto a location in Sinkiang province in China.
According to details the feasibility study would include the 750-Km track winding through the Karakoram Range in the northern areas and 250-Km track in the South Chinese province.</b>
The study was initially intended to be awarded to a single Chinese firm that approached the Chairman Railways in July 2006. Later the study tender was widened to include as many as 13 contenders. The short listing has been reached after an informal vetting by the ministry.
The study has been commissioned for completion in the six to nine month time. Sources linked to the project told The Nation that the project would take more than a decade to complete on the single premise that the area is mountainous and in most of the cases tunnels would have to be identified and created along the route.
When queried about the proximity of the proposed rail track along the Karakoram Highway and the under construction Basha Dam, they told that issue has been already taken into consideration and the final lay out of the track and tunnel would only take place, when the KKH has been accordingly uplifted for the above mentioned dam site.
Here it may be mentioned that the area where the dam, KKH and rail track are to be located has a peculiar soil structure, that needs concrete application and engineering along the tunnels as well as the track. That would entail more investment as well as time. The sources argued that the tunnel creation and concrete application would be such a long and painstaking process that it would take years for the project engineers to reach the Basha Dam site.
<b>Regards cost estimates, the railway engineers linked to the project said that given the fact that the <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>recently completed Tibet China rail link cost approximately US $ 5 million per one kilometre, in the case of northern areas, the bill per kilometer can be even higher. They said that the design would invariably involve more than the warranted tunnels. According to the safe estimate, the whole project would entail US $ 5 Billion (Rs 300 Billion) approximately.</span></b>
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->