Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Friday launched two multi-million dollar strategic projects in the Gilgit-Baltistan region aimed at restoring the Karakorum Highway that links Pakistan with China. Ashraf performed the groundbreaking for a new 17-km section of the Karakoram Highway that will replace a 25-km section that was submerged by the Attabad Lake, which was formed as a result of landslides. The new section will be completed in a year at a cost of $282 million, officials said. He also inaugurated a 335-km section of the road from Raikot to Khunjerab that was upgraded at a cost of $510.42 million.
