Pakistan bridges major infrastructure gaps

Pakistan’s infrastructure isn’t in the best shape. The country has constant trouble with poorly maintained roads, a decaying railway network, power cuts, lack of proper water and sanitation provisions and fragmented communication lines. However, things are changing.

The country is building hope on China, whose newly established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Silk Road Fund will be used to finance its vast infrastructure plans in the region.

In June, Pakistan Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar signed the agreement to back the AIIB. “The AIIB has been especially created to serve the needs of infrastructure funding in the region,” Dar said, adding that he believes Pakistan could draw financial support for communications and energy infrastructure projects.

Additionally, last month, Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Pakistan has started construction on a 700-km pipeline to import liquefied natural gas from China, which would help overcome years of energy shortages. Khaqan added that the Chinese and Pakistani governments will jointly fund the project, which will pass through Himalayan valleys, as per news agency dpa.

This follows China’s pledge to invest no less than $46 billion (Dh168.9 billion) — partly out of the Silk Road Fund — in Pakistan’s infrastructure, announced in April during President Xi Jinping’s visit to the country. Much of that money is planned to flow into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The project includes the construction of roads, railways, pipelines and industrial zones on the route from Gwadar Port in Balochistan to Xinjiang.

Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique has said his ministry is already using CPEC funds to upgrade the main railway track from Karachi to Lahore, as well as up to Peshawar, where a new dry river port will also be built.

Beijing is further pushing for massive infrastructure developments, including the six-lane 1,240-km Karachi-Lahore highway due for completion in 2017, as well as new or upgraded metro and bus service in six cities. Another major project is the overhaul and modernisation of the Karakoram Highway, the 1,300-km economic lifeline connecting Pakistan and China and tracing one of the many routes of the Silk Road.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) is also playing a role in improving Pakistan’s infrastructure, having provided more than $25 billion in loans and over $200 million in grants. The latest assistance came in June when it agreed to give $220 million in aid to help the country build hazard-resilient infrastructure and rebuild and upgrade roads, bridges and other high-priority infrastructure damaged by the 2014 floods. The country suffered another round of devastating floods last month, which affected more than 850,000 people. “Pakistan is highly dependent on agriculture and prone to floods and other extreme weather related-events such as the latest severe heatwave, and these will worsen as a result of climate change,” Donneth Walton, Principal Natural Resources and Agriculture Specialist in ADB’s Central and West Asia Department, tells GN Focus.

“Our assistance supports a build-back-better approach, with multi-hazard-resistant features incorporated into the restored infrastructure.”