Govt releases Rs1.3 billion for CPEC security

1% of total project cost being set aside for security

ISLAMABAD: The government has released Rs1.3 billion to the interior ministry for the security of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which Pakistan says India is trying to sabotage.

“One per cent of the total cost of projects under the economic corridor is being set aside for CPEC’s security requirements,” a senior government official told The Express Tribune while citing a decision of the Cabinet Committee on Energy.

“Pursuant to the decision, an amount of Rs1.3 billion has been released to the interior ministry,” he added.



“The government has already spent a substantial amount of money on raising additional wings of the civil armed forces in different parts of the country for CPEC’s security. And the money so collected would be transferred to the finance ministry to recoup the cost already incurred.”

“Out of the total cost of $45 billion meant for CPEC, projects worth $35 billion have already been energised,” he added. “This means projects of more than 75% of the total value of CPEC have been initiated and are at different stages of implementation.”

“This is a great achievement and the government can justifiably take pride in it,” he said.

He said a monographic study on transport planning of CPEC for the period between 2014 and 2030 had been conducted to establish a convenient, unblocked, safe, highly efficient and comprehensive transport channel with large capacities and coordinated development of many transport modes in western China and Pakistan.



“The study, approved by the Joint Cooperation Committee during its meeting held on November 12 2015, focuses on arterial roads, railways, Gwadar seaport and some airports.



“It identifies priority projects to be completed before 2017-18, short-term projects to be implemented before 2020, as well as medium- and long-term projects covering the period 2025-30.” The official said different transport infrastructure projects were being implemented under CPEC. “Work on the Havelian-Thakot section of the Karakoram Highway will be completed in 2018, while the Multan-Sukkur section of the Karachi-Peshawar Motorway will be completed in 2018.”

Similarly, expansion and reconstruction of the Karachi-Peshawar and Taxila-Havelian rail route or Main Line-1 (ML-1) and a new dry port at Havelian had been initiated, he said.

For both these projects, he added, a framework agreement was under process and financing modalities were being worked out.

The official said the Chinese government had provided either grants or loans on soft term for different projects in Gwadar and added that it was showing keen interest in expediting pace of work on these projects.



“Work on the Gwadar East Bay Expressway and the New Gwadar International Airport is likely to commence in December. Runway at the airport has been designed to accommodate large/wide-bodied aircraft, while the airport terminal would be a modular one and could be expanded with the increase in the number of passengers.”

Other Gwadar projects include provision of freshwater, construction of a 300MW coal-fired power plant, setting up a technical and vocational institute and the Pak China Friendship hospital.

The pilot project of digital television (DTMB or Digital Terrestrial Multiband Broadcast) has been completed at a cost of $2 million, while work on a cross-border fibre optic (Khunjrab-Rawalpindi) commenced in October 2015 and is likely to be completed in December 2017.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2016.