Islamabad: The Chinese government will include four new road projects, costing over Rs350bn, to the original plans of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
An official close to the matter said the decision was taken at the fifth meeting of the CPEC Joint Working Group of Transport Infrastructure held in Karachi yesterday.
The meeting was attended by Communication Minister Dr Hafiz Abdul Kareem, Communication Secretary Muhammad Siddique, National Highway Authority Chairperson Shahid Ashraf Tarar. The Chinese delegation was headed by Ministry of Transport Vice Minister Dai Dongchang.
The Chinese government had agreed to include the four projects in the CPEC portfolio during a meeting held on December 29, 2016 in Beijing, but only gave the final approval during the meeting, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The four road projects that will be connected to the CPEC include Mirpur-Muzaffarabad-Mansehra, the Chitral CPEC Link Road (Gilgit-Shindor-Chitral), the Naukundi-Mashkel-Panjgur Road that will connect National highway N-40 with CPEC Route N-85 and Zhob-Kuchlak which is part of the Western Corridor CPEC Phase-II project.
