Dhaka, Aug. 6 -- CPEC has seen Beijing pledge over $60 billion for infrastructure projects in Pakistan, central to China's wider Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to develop land and sea trade routes in Asia and beyond.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the railway project, known as Mainline-1 (ML-1), on a cost-sharing basis between Islamabad and Beijing, Pakistan's finance division said in a statement.

Under the project, Pakistan's existing 2,655km railway tracks will be upgraded to allow trains to move up to 165km per hour - twice as fast as they currently do - while the line capacity will increase from 34 to over 150 trains each way per day.

"The execution of the project shall be in 3 packages an...