By IANS,
Islamabad : Beijing has hiked investment in the China-Pakistan railway, it was reported here.
Pakistan welcomed China’s cabinet decision to increase investment in major infrastructure construction projects in the two economic zones in Xinjiang, including the construction of the China-Kyrghyzstan-Uzbekistan railway and the China-Pakistan railway.
“It reflects the vision of the leadership of the two countries to enhance connectivity between China and Pakistan,” Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Ambassador Masood Khan as saying in Beijing Monday.
Khan said: “A rail link between our two countries will shorten distances and create new transportation, trade and energy corridors.”
He pointed out that some ground work has already been done in this regard. The decision would give a fresh impetus to establishing a closer rail link between the two countries, he added.
The enhanced transportation links between Pakistan and China will launch the modern silk routes passing through the adjoining territories of China and Pakistan.
In 2007, Pakistan had awarded a $1.2 million contract to undertake a feasibility study for establishing the rail link with China.
The study was to cover a 750-km section between Havelian, in north-west Pakistan, and the 4,730-metre-high Khunjerab Pass crossing over Mansehra district and the Karakoram Highway.
The Chinese are to lay a track within their territory up to Khunjerab, linking Pakistan with China’s rail network.
Khunjerab is a mountain pass in the Karakoram mountains on the border of Gilgit-Baltistan and China’s Xinjiang region.