ISLAMABAD: Communication Secretary Shahid Ashraf Tarrar has assured the Senate Standing Committee on Communication that no new proposal for change in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor route was presented in any meeting.
He said the government is planning to construct four different link routes along the corridor and that this may have created confusion which has triggered the controversy over the project’s route.
Opposition leader in National Assembly Khursheed Shah last week urged the prime minister to intervene in the matter and told him that no change in the route of corridor would be acceptable.
However, the ministry of communication denied there was any change in the original route of the economic corridor.
Committee chairman Daud Khan Achakzaihad warned earlier that any change in the original route would meet the same fate as Kalabagh dam since the smaller provinces would never allow such a controversial project to be constructed.
Tarrar said that constructing the 2,242-kilometre corridor would cost $11.5 billion and take at least 10 to 15 years. He said that Chinese private investors are investing $1 billion on the highways under the ‘build, operate and transfer’ mechanism.
