Islamabad: The federal government has decided to include three multi-billion rupee road infrastructure development projects in the agenda of the upcoming China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor (CPEC) Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting, news sources reported on May 23.
According to reports, the three projects are the Mansehra-Muzaffarabad Expressway, the Babusar Tunnel, and the Zhob-D.I. Khan Highway (N50). The decision was made at a Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting presided over by Minister of Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.
The minister instructed for the required dossiers be prepared by the relevant authorities for the JCC meeting. As per sources, the details of the project are as follows:
Mansehra-Muzaffarabad (a link of CPEC) road; is estimated to be developed with PKR 44.72 billion. The PC-1 of the project has been approved and referred to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval.
The proposal to upgrade the 210-kilometre long Zhob-D.I. Khan (N-50) road from 2 lanes to 4 lanes with the option of expansion to 6 lanes in the future.
Construction of Babusar Top tunnel to connect Kaghan Valley with Chilas, Gilgit Baltistan for tourism development
Furthermore, the minister asked the members of Pakistan Railways (PR) to speed up the processing of the much-anticipated Main-Line-1 (ML-1) project. He suggested that the officials complete the feasibility study for the 250 kilometre/hour project and integrate it with the laying down of the fibre optic line project to save money.
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