I think we are all getting ahead of ourselves here. Over and beyond the hype, Chabahar, for India, was a master stroke in that it prevents Pakistan from cutting off India, Afghanistan and central Asia. That plan of Pakistan can now reside in the dustbin. Chabahar for India is now already successful as far as it's main objective is concerned but for me, it's grand purpose should also be trade and hopefully we can capture large shares in the connecting markets.
CPEC on that other hand completely relies to a large extent on China. Yes, it has interconnected Pakistani cities, and roads always bring business but how Pakistan leverages this network for it's own remains to be seen and there has been no evidence of such in terms of plans and actions other than power generation. The only news we read is how this will be a game changer because of Chinese goods.
The only way both will be a huge success is if both countries think how the respective networks can help their own trade. I wish both countries can leverage this network and are inspired to grow their economies and talk less how about how one is out doing the other.
