The construction of the Indus Highway has been laid under the projection of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program (CAREC). This Highway would be a chain of connections, it will connect Pakistan to China and nine other states of Central Asia.
It is a high coasting project that is estimated to be around US$7.7 billion on its completion. There are eight different points which need up-gradation and that would be defiantly crucial to regional connectivity and international traffic.
The foremost benefit of this project would be the up-gradation of infrastructure in rural areas. As the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$235 million loan for the up-gradation of a 222-km high patch starting from Shikarpur to Rajanpur that connects Sindh to the Punjab province.
It would have many advantages for Pakistan as ADB Transport Specialist Rika Idei assures that “The project addresses key road safety, climate resilience, and gender-specific needs to ensure users travel safely, smoothly, and comfortably. This will facilitate the regional movement of goods and people, and support Pakistan’s economic recovery from COVID-19.”
Pakistan has gained the capability to overcome barriers of growth and can place Central Asia at the heart of trade and commerce in the integrated global markets after joining the CAREC program in 2010. And therefore Pakistan is improving its national road corridors which lead it to the Middle East and South Asia.
These corridors are stretching from Azerbaijan in the west, China in the east, and Kazakhstan to the next and beyond. Pakistan’s road network under CAREC Corridor 5 plays an important trading link between landlocked Central Asian nations and Gwadar and Karachi on the Arabian Sea.
The major aim of CAREC is to establish a modern transport and energy infrastructure that will benefit the region. They have invested US$1.47 billion in Pakistan.
This corridor also builds strong ties with the neighboring countries and that has improved the import mechanism. In return for all these benefits, Pakistan has to give access to the warm water ports on the Arabian Sea to the CAREC partners. The geographic location of Pakistan has ideally set it up to become a hub of economic activity.
