ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have agreed in principle to constitute a consortium for seeking a soft-term loan from some international company for laying a railway track between the two countries, an official said.
Talking to APP, he said a six-member committee comprising equal number of experts from both China and Pakistan has already been constituted to move forward in this regard.
He said that China has already prepared a feasibility report of laying a railway track in the difficult terrain of Karakoram linking both the states through Khunjarab Pass.
He said that the Chinese feasibility report covered the railway track up to Havelian, a town near Islamabad. He said that both sides were agreed to form a consortium and seek support of some international institution for funding the multi-billion dollars project.
According to an official, a process to hook up the Pakistan Railways with the Trans-Asian Railway Network is initiated with active support of Chinese government which will besides, linking the time tested friendly countries through rail networks, also ensure standardising the Pakistani gauge to international standards. This will facilitate trade to the Central Asian Republics, Russia and China and beyond.
The plan is to hook up the two countries with road, rail and fiber optic links. Trade between the people of the Indus and the people of the Yangtse has been going on for thousands of years. Commerce between the Indus Valley Civilisation and Ughuristan, Eastern Turkistan or Xinxiang has been an integral of the Pakistani and Kashmiri economy.
Despite tall claims, this is the original Silk Route, and both China and Pakistan are determined to update it with modern fiber, rail, roads and business links: fiber-optic line, oil and gas pipeline, rail track linking Karakorum Highway to Gwadar.
