Two new motorway projects worth Rs314bn added to CPEC

ISLAMABAD: As work on the western alignment of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is in full swing, the incumbent government has initiated eleven new road projects under the project.

According to official sources in the CPEC Authority, two new road projects worth Rs314 billion were added to the CPEC in the meeting of the 10th Joint Coordination Committee on CPEC, Radio Pakistan reported.

Read more: CPEC’s 2nd phase to expedite socioeconomic uplift of Pakistan: official

Out of the new projects, PC-I of 29 kilometres Dir-Chakdara Motorway has been approved and it would be completed within two years at a cost of Rs38 billion.

Similarly, the 360 kilometres Peshawar-Dera Ismail Khan motorway has also been included in the CPEC which is expected to be completed within four years at a cost of Rs276 billion.

The sources said among the projects initiated by the current government also include the 331 kilometres Zhob-Quetta road which is expected to be completed at a cost of Rs63 billion.

The second phase of the CPEC would accelerate the socio-economic development in Pakistan, Khalid Mansoor, special assistant to the Prime Minister on CPEC affairs had said on December 21.

Read more: ‘CPEC part of broader, deeper Pak-China ties’

With a special focus on industrial cooperation among others, the second phase of CPEC was crucial for the economic revival of Pakistan, Mansoor had said while addressing a conference on the CPEC in Lahore, expressing the commitment to making Pakistan a manufacturing hub through the industrial revolution.

The government had been taking effective steps for the industrial revolution in the country, thus CPEC was one of the most important projects in this regard, the official had said.