These motorways will transform Pakistan over the next decade. Pakistan as a country is laid along a north south axis with River Indus forming the backbone. Most of the population is also strung along this length. This north south axis forms Pakistan's ecnomic corridor with the terminus being Karachi port. The problem is most of the population is far away from the port and transport costs are high along the chocked N-5.
With completion of Peshawar 2 Karachi motorway the entire country will be linked with a high speed motorway. This means the entire north south corridor will be connected to the port and the word markets. This means you could set up industry along this 1,000 mile long motorway network, running from Afghan border, Peshawar 2 Islamabad 2 Lahore 2 Faisalabad 2 multan 2 Sukker to Karachi and be able to transport your goods within 12 hours max along a efficent transport corridor. Now it is for Pakistan entreprenuers across the entire lenght of the country to engage with global economy as the port will only be few hours away. I expect major benefits to accrue within the next decade as the trade corridor takes off. Most exciting will be new trade or industrial zones sited right next to the motorway. Surprisingly this is already happening. Below [
Numbered 1 above] is just north of Faisalabad along the M-4 section of the motorway. already you can see a giant industrial estate emerging spread over 4 miles on south side of the motorway. This motorway corridor could be the next biggest change in terms of transport that hit the Indus valley since the British built the rail network linking the north to Karachi. Like I said it's upto the millions of Pakistani's who live along the corridor to make this a chain of economic activity that ties in with the global trading order. We could see 10 times the return over the next few decades.
Ideally we should expect a string of such trading estates to take root from Peshawar all the way 1,000 miles south to Karachi. So no, CPEC is not dead. It's just moving into phase 2 now.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...1f7e614925c!8m2!3d30.375321!4d69.345116?hl=en
Below is the emerging Rashakai [
numbered 2 above] not too far from Peshawar. Ultimately it is for all the Pakistani's to leverage this north south corridor and build for the future.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...1f7e614925c!8m2!3d30.375321!4d69.345116?hl=en
@Nilgiri thoughts?