ISLAMABAD: Pakistan expects to secure soft loans from China of about $1 billion this week for three road projects in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a Pakistani official said on Tuesday.
The roads lie on the western route of CPEC, a $55 billion network of roads, rail links, power plants and other infrastructure connecting western China to Pakistan’s southern port of Gwadar.
They include roads from Raikot to Thakot, Yarik to Zhob and from Basima to Khuzdar, Ashraf Zaman, spokesman for Pakistan’s National Highway Authority (NHA) said.
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Zaman said a deal was reached with the Chinese to finance the three additional roads in November.
“Hopefully, an agreement will be signed between the two countries in this regard in China Pakistan Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting to be held on December 29 in Beijing,” he said.
The $46-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project focuses on road building and energy infrastructure to end chronic power shortages in Pakistan and to link China’s landlocked north-west with the deep-water port Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.
