China to solely fund Pakistan’s railway project

Islamabad: Pakistan has refused part financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for its Karachi-Peshawar rail line following China’s interest in “single-handedly funding the project”.

“China strongly argued that two-sourced financing would create problems and the project would suffer,” Pakistan’s Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal was on Friday quoted by Dawn news as saying.

The minister said the entire financing of the $8 billion project — originally planned to be partly funded by the Manila-based ADB — would come from China, the report said.

Pakistan and China are expected to sign a formal agreement in this regard next month.

The ADB had to provide $3.5 billion for the 1,700-km Karachi-Peshawar line, considered the backbone of the country’s logistics and is one of the four main railway lines in Pakistan.