PM briefed on high-speed train project

E-Paper | March 15, 2026

ABOARD BEIJING-SHANGHAI TRAIN: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his entourage travelled in a high-speed train from Beijing to Shanghai on Saturday.

Chief Engineer and General Manager of the High-Speed Train Management Zhao Guotang gave a briefing to the prime minister on the project.

Mr Sharif expressed desire to build such projects in different cities of Pakistan to fulfil his commitment of providing comfortable transport facility to people.

Mr Zhao told Mr Sharif that the project cost about $20 million per kilometre and China had achieved excellence in designing and manufacturing high-speed trains.

Around 220,000 people travel by the train daily and it covers a distance of 1,318km from Beijing to Shanghai in five hours. Almost 87 per cent of its rail track is elevated and the highest speed of the train is 310km per hour.

Executive President of China’s Gezhouba company Yang Yisheng met the prime minister and expressed willingness to execute power, infrastructure and high-speed train projects in Pakistan.

Mr Sharif said his government wanted to generate maximum chunk of electricity through coal to get low-priced electricity.

The vice president of China Machinery Engineering Corporation, Jin Chunsheng said his company was capable of manufacturing coal turbines having the capacity to generate up to 1,000MW. Usually coal turbines generate a maximum of 5,000MW of electricity.—APP

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Ebrahim Naek

Jul 07, 2013 07:07am

Sharif brethran please at the least look happy. Yar kam iz kam khush toh nazir ao. You r visiting china and representing us.

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Ahmad

Jul 07, 2013 07:26am

Sharif is delusional. People in Pakistan don't have drinking water, food to eat or for that matter education and employment. Fast or bullet trains are not the answer or the need for people of Pakistan. With 12 hour of load shedding every day and businesses flopping every day the PM is thinking about bullet trains. Protect country not the king. So please people of Pakistan revolt against monarchy or suffer the rest of your lives with more misery then ever before.

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Talha Vaqar

Jul 07, 2013 07:38am

Please wake up! We need education, electricity and security not high speed trains. In a country fraught with security mishaps and financial crisis, comfortable travel is way lower on the list of priorities or at least so one would hope.

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Johar Ali

Jul 07, 2013 07:47am

We require a multi prong approach: 1) we should probably opt for the 5000 mw turbine. 2) explore China made solar panels which are becoming very famous around the world. 3) Wind turbines 4) Biogas 5) Geothermal energy needs to be utilized.

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Amir

Jul 07, 2013 08:07am

Great Idea, think of and plan for high speed trains at least we will get some kind of trains that is safe, on time and comfortable to some extent.

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Jul 07, 2013 08:27am

Good however just like other Chinese Technology:) either its a soviet union or a bad Western copy...Pakistan should opt for High end German French or Japanese technology...At the end of the day we are talking of human lives Chinese technology in Pakistani hands will be lethal

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I. Ahmed

Jul 07, 2013 09:19am

Not sure what this high speed train journey has anything to do with problems of Pakistan? Unless, in the name of bullet train the PM and CM will handover Pakistan Railways to China! Why go through so much drama to privatize or sell an PR to China?

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Ejaz

Jul 07, 2013 10:12am

Priority should be given to basic necessities like electricity, water and health. Then comes the luxury like fast track locomotives and road transports. We cannot afford luxury now. In urdu there is a proverb which is a favorite of Nawaz Sharif also, 'Jaib main nahi hai dhela dekhne chale hain mela'. Every one is attracted to glitering things but one has to confine himself within the limits of his budget. Thanks.

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Jason

Jul 07, 2013 10:16am

This is amazingly hilarious.... Nation is starving and taking a blood bath , and he is getting briefed over a speed train ... Surely tells us how much seriousness he has towards the country. Supporters of nawaz should see this and think where they were wrong ...

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satti

Jul 07, 2013 10:26am

Dear Mr. Shareef, nice thinking, but please concentrate on the law and order issue first and give special attention to this issue and fix it, because with out fixing this issue nothing is practicable, please take all the stake holder on board and make proper effective policy to address this issue then other plan will be successful and productive. warm regards,

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ishrat salim

Jul 07, 2013 10:53am

All this is fine but should come later, presently, security, law & order & energy are the most important factors destroying our country.......

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Shiraz

Jul 07, 2013 11:15am

Could have been better had Mian sahab had thought about fixing local transport related worries of the major cities first before embarking on a high speed train project. No doubt, this one is also a good initiative.

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Kesar

Jul 07, 2013 12:57pm

Utter waste of money on HST which Pakistan can ill afford. They should first improve the existing train system - tracks, signalling, engines and carriages. The majority of the people need cheap and efficient service.

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Saad

Jul 07, 2013 01:28pm

The price seems to have been mis-quoted. 20 million per kilometer would mean more than 8 billion dollars for 420 km!!

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Blitzer

Jul 07, 2013 01:29pm

Mr. Sharif is busy thinking about building things, like this bullet train, that we do NOT need with money we do NOT have. Bravo!

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alifmeem

Jul 07, 2013 01:42pm

No flute China is our trusted friend but its equipment has no gurrantn no reliability. Trains already bought from them are already prematured condemed and out of economical repair. The buying of train again from them would not be in interest of pakistain.

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farhan

Jul 07, 2013 01:41pm

Looks like both sharif brothers are completely disinterested in this briefing. Great photo!

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gangadin

Jul 07, 2013 01:48pm

$20 Million per Kilometer? Sure, Pakistan can afford that.

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Faisal

Jul 07, 2013 01:52pm

If 20 million USB costs for just one Km.This would mean that from Islamabad to Karachi which is about 1500 Km, it would cost about 30 Billion USD!!! May be project could be realized in next 100 years when IMF has enough dollors to lend Pakistan.

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Salahuddin Ahmad

Jul 07, 2013 02:25pm

These half boiled leaders should first consider fixing up the train system already available in pakistan, that will be of great help to our poor citizens who usually travel on rooftops of busses because of lack of affordable transport. these people are not leaders they are shop keepers who haven't a clue about governance and administration, what a shame.

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Khalid

Jul 07, 2013 03:04pm

It is so silly to even think about high-speed trains at this stage. This is exactly the same logic that distributing laptops to students is better than putting desktops in every school in Pakistan. Laptops benefit individuals and desktops could benefit 1o times more pupil. Not even the wealthiest countries in the world have done it. nobody in Pakistan have ever complained about not having fast-trains. What we do need are buses (that are non existent), trains (we don't have any left), we also have an airline which is a complete failure (old planes, never on time and joke of the aviation industry etc.). If we have not been able to all that in 60 years, what makes us believe that we can do it now. As Einstein said, doing the doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results equals insanity. But then, we all know Mr. Sharif is no Einstein.

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Jul 07, 2013 03:31pm

@Kesar: I agree. We need to fix the existing issues first.

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Rehan

Jul 07, 2013 03:32pm

Thumps Up for Nawaz Sharif. i hope he will do it as soon as possible as he never listen to BB when he was making the Motorway. we need it and just do it.

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niju

Jul 07, 2013 04:30pm

the chinese will try to sell you all the equipments like high speed rail link, satellites, etc. its upto you to decide what pakistan realy needs to develop............. dont go after unnecessary gimmicks. get things done on loan and maintaining it will be dificult for the future of pakistan

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Rahul Meena

Jul 07, 2013 04:36pm

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Nadir

Jul 07, 2013 05:12pm

Is the $20 million per km figure accurate? for the 1,318 km discussed in the article that means $26 billion for the project. Not sure if this is accurate. I know people complain about infrastructure projects such as highways and trains and public transport but transport is the backbone of any nation. Pakistan has unfortunately neglected its railway system which means bulk transport has to happen by truck rather than train like the rest of the world. additional public transit infrastructure means less reliance on and maintenance of roads, reduced petroleum usage and imports and thus reduction in deficit and ability to provide saved cng to industries instead. In that regard i think it would be amazing to have a high speed train from peshawar to karachi to connect the country. Yes expensive, and idealistic and definitely not achievable by pakistan at these costs, but a man can dream.

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Khalid

Jul 07, 2013 05:18pm

@Jason: Couldn't have put it better myself Jason. Well written. Short, sweet and to the point.

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Pradip

Jul 07, 2013 06:08pm

@Rahul Meena: Dear Rahul, this is impossible, a single largest Steam turbine is yet to cross 1700MW capacity. Generally Ultra Mega thermal power stations have capacities in the range of 4200MW to 5000MW. It will be strategically unwise for any nation to build larger power projects as, any attack or natural calamity will derail a major part of power generation within the country.

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Khan

Jul 07, 2013 06:13pm

Remenber Nawaz Sharif is a politician first .. everything else like care for needs of people comes way down in the list ... Just like Motorway project he will start work on this Train project knowing we do not have any money or capacity to build this, will leave to it to the next government and then will again take the slogan "we were building Bullet trains in Pakistan get us elected once more and see what we can do". He started the Motorway project but did not build even 10% of it .. 90% of project was completed in Musharraf's & then PPP's governments so they had to pay from their budgets. Although I am not against Motorways but when a leader has some vision he/she will first fix over population, education and tax systems without those no matter how many roads you build they will be always over crowded and filthy.

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Ahmed

Jul 07, 2013 07:01pm

I can assure you there is nothing known as a "coal turbine" in the world.

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Syed Ahmed

Jul 07, 2013 07:24pm

At least Mr. Sharif is thing positive. It is only that makes a mare go. To get the laundered money back in to the country, you have to take the first step.

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Maqbool Basha

Jul 07, 2013 08:26pm

India abandoned the idea of high speed train project because the ticket fares are equal to flight fares after working out initial capital and maintenance charges.

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indian

Jul 07, 2013 09:45pm

This train is 40 years after the Japanese Shinkanshen bullet train built by Kawasaki which has never had an accident while the Chinese fake copy has had 3 ! Hindu India is going with the Japanese !

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Mohammad

Jul 08, 2013 02:55am

Aray Bhai Log. Train chalanay ke liye Bijli Chahiye - Pehlai Bijli ke a masala hul karain phir yes sub.

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salman

Jul 08, 2013 07:41am

What waste of tax money when the nation does not have clean water to drink and electricity for 24 hrs.

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IBN-E-ASHFAQUE

Jul 08, 2013 12:24pm

The first lesson is that a qualified and experienced engineer needs to be the genral manager of the project and not some supervsor of Ittefaq Foundry. The second lesson is that please improve the railway system that we have by establishing professional performance management system in the organisation. The third lesson is that do first thing first, and do not put the horse before the cart.

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tam

Jul 08, 2013 03:03pm

Ahh I am not a prime minister or even a consuler but I think these train run on electricity , Guess what we dont have it .Amazing PM

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Jaffar

Jul 08, 2013 03:29pm

Dear Mr.Sharif, Please calculate how much money you have spent, by calculating through man hour method, by thinking, talking or dreaming about this stupid project. Even a lay man knows that this is not a viable project in Pakistan. Last time when you were ousted from government you had left only about $500 million in the cofers. Now you are dreaming about spending 25 billion on this train. The country that was unable to run Mohanjedaro express train is now thinking of bullet train. Please also calculate at what speed the 320 km ph train will blow and explode in the event of a Taleban bomb planted in the train. Please do not let this be known to international media, we will be laughing stock. Any way, keep dreaming.

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Ali

Jul 09, 2013 09:53am

Dear Mr. Sharif Good to hear that bullet train will introduce in Pakistan run Different cities around the nation. But you have to be procure also following equipments also for its station if required CCTV IPTV DOMES with & without DVR with Battery Backup & motion sensor Access Control System Public Address System with Battery Backup Audio System Security Fencing with alarm system & current Auto Electronic Power Tools with Battery Backup Compete security system for railway station, airports & Dryports We are looking forward to establish good commercial realation with your goverment for booking or RFQ please feel free to write us an email at a7861983@gmail.com

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