China to fully fund key Karachi-Peshawar railway project in Pakistan

Islamabad: China will fully fund the USD 8 billion Karachi-Peshawar Railway Line in Pakistan to ensure the smooth completion of the key project, which was earlier to be partly funded by the ADB.

"China strongly argued that two-sourced financing would create problems and the project would suffer," Pakistan Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal told reporters yesterday.

The project was originally planned to be partly funded by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Dawn reported.

The minister said he would not comment whether the Ministry of Railways has resisted the Chinese request for fears of monopoly, but said the entire financing would now come from China.

He said the ADB would be accommodated in some other projects, such as those under the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation programme

Under the original plan, the ADB had to provide USD 3.5bn for the 1,700-kilometre-long line considered the backbone of the country's logistics connecting two major ports with the rest of the country for transporting goods and passengers.

The minister said the Chinese government therefore wanted that the project financing should be kept single-sourced. Pakistan and China are expected to sign a formal agreement in this regard next month.