PM briefed on high-speed train project

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 China146s 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.151APP