New rail, road cargo linking China’s Lanzhou with Islamabad launched

BEIJING/ISLAMABAD: China has launched a new rail and road cargo service linking Lanzhou, capital of northwest China’s Gansu Province, with Islamabad.

The first train carrying 30 carriages of mechanical equipment, auto parts and daily necessities left a logistics center yesterday in Lanzhou, bound for Kashgar in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The goods will then be transported to Islamabad by a highway, China’s state-run media reported on Wednesday.

According to Luo Zhe, deputy director with the management committee of the International Land Port of Gansu (Lanzhou), the 4,500-km trip will take 13 days, around 15 days less than the traditional sea route.

This was the second freight train service launched by Gansu to south Asia.

In 2016, a rail and road cargo service opened between Lanzhou and Kathmandu, Nepal.

“I hope the new rail and road cargo service can set a good example for cooperation between China and Pakistan and encourage more countries and regions to join the Belt and Road Initiative,” Luo said.

Earlier this month, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had said that the cost of Pakistan Railways’ (PR) ML-1 project under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been cut by $2 billion.

The mega project to revamp the colonial-era line stretching 1,872 km (1,163 miles) from Karachi to the northwestern city of Peshawar was initially priced at $8.2 billion, but wrangling over costs has led to delays.

The changes are part of Islamabad’s efforts to rethink key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in Pakistan, where Beijing has pledged about $60 billion in financing but the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan appears to be more cautious about the Chinese investment.