NHA to build Khyber Pass Economic Corridor soon

ISLAMABAD: National Highway Authority (NHA) has planned to build 47 km Khyber Pass Economic Corridor project on a new alignment, an official of the NHA told APP on Monday.

The project envisaged construction of four-lane wide dual carriageway and high-speed access controlled motorway from Peshawar to Torkham.

The Peshawar-Torkham section forms part of the Peshawar-Jalalabad-Kabul Motorway project.

The World Bank was providing $460 million in loan for the project and there was an allocation of Rs1.5 billion in the 2021 Public Sector Development Programme for the project, he added.

It is worth a mention that recently Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) gave approval to the project, which was comprised of two components - construction of Peshawar-Torkham Motorway and a link road connecting the motorway to Badabher.

He said the revised PC-I of the project also included the additional scope for a four-lane link road connecting the Peshawar-Torkham Motorway to Indus Highway at Badabher and further linking Grand Trunk Road between Chamkani and Jhagra.

He said the project would provide employment opportunities to thousands of persons, besides immensely boosting Pak-Afghan trade activities.

The official said the expressway between Peshawar and Kabul through the Khyber Pass represents a section of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC).

The portion which runs through Pakistan, has the potential to provide the shortest link between the landlocked countries of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Arabian Sea, while Corridor 6 provides access to Europe, Middle East and Russia.