KP to serve as trade corridor between Pakistan, regional countries upon completion of Dera-Peshawar, Swat phase-II Motor.

PESHAWAR -- Strategically located in close proximity with Afghanistan and gateway to Central Asian Republics (CARs), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is going to become a hub of trade, industrialization and economic activities following construction of 365 kilometers long Dera Ismail Khan-Peshawar Motorway and 81 kilometers Swat Motorway (Phase-II).

The two mega projects would serve as trade corridors between Pakistan and Afghanistan and enable KP to fully capitalize on CPEC projects.

The provincial Government under its larger communication development programme has planned to construct state-of- the art Peshawar-Dera Ismail Khan Motorway to bolster regional connectivity and expedite pace of economic and industrial development in the relatively less developed southern districts of KP and seven merged tribal districts (erstwhile Fata).

It would become an international trade corridor (ITC) by providing direct access to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics (CARs) to increase their exports through Karachi and Gwadar sea ports.

The 365 kilometers- long fenced motorway would be onward linked to CPEC western route for easy access to Gwadar seaport and Karachi in future having relatively shorter distance as compared to other CPEC routes besides reducing vehicles' operating costs.

'Work on Peshawar-DI Khan Motorway is in an advanced stage and its detailed PC-I amounting to Rs276.599 billion have been submitted to Planning Commission (PC) for approval on January 5, 2021 while its ground-breaking ceremony would soon be held,' said Engr Burkatullah Khan, Project Director (PD), KP Highways Authority while talking to reporter.

He said the project had been taken up with CPEC's Joint Working Group (JWG) on October 10 and 11, 2019 under a new proposed roads project and it was decided to include it in CPEC framework. Later, it was also discussed in the 9th Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting held in Islamabad on November 5, 2019 wherein it was agreed to consider it in the next JWG meeting after approval of PC-I by the planning commission.

The project director said in 8th CPEC JWG meeting held in Islamabad on October 26, 2020, it was decided to get the approval of its PC-I from respective forums including PC and ECNEC before upcoming JCC's meeting, adding Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) had also cleared its PC-I on December 21, 2020. He said the provincial government was also considering to execute the project under Public Private Partnership (PPP)...