CPEC a new opportunity for Dera Ismail Khan people: Division Commissioner

Dera Ismail Khan: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects are a new opportunity to the people of Dera Ismail Khan to transform their lives, Division Commissioner Amir Latif said.

Speaking to journalists , he said CPEC was bound to bring a positive change in everyone’s life in Dera Ismail Khan.

“CPEC is a game changer. The work on the CPEC projects is being completed at a fast pace. This (CPEC) is a transformational project. It will change everything,” he said.

Last week, Latif had said that work on the CPEC route passing through Dera Ismail Khan had almost been complete.

“As soon as some remaining sections are completed the route would be opened to traffic. The project would change the destiny of the people for the better. The completion of the route distance between Dera Ismail Khan and Islamabad would be reduced to only 280 kilometres,” he had said.

This week, CPEC Authority Chairman Lt. General Asim Saleem Bajwa (retd) said the western alignment routes of the CPEC will be completed in around three years while the country was entering the second phase of CPEC that primarily focuses on agriculture and mass industrialisation.

He said that work on the western alignment was underway on the route from Islamabad to Dera Ismail Khan and from Dera Ismail Khan to Zhob. “We have presented a roadmap to China and they have approved it,” he said, adding that work had also started on the Zhob-Quetta route.

All routes of the western alignment go through remote areas where poverty rate is higher, jobs are less and industrial development and infrastructure is very low, thus completion of these projects will usher in prosperity in these areas, he said.

The chairman said that in the second phase of CPEC, “we are moving beyond infrastructure to focus on agriculture, particularly economic zones to boost industrialisation.”

The 292 kilometers long mega Western Corridor project will help usher an era of economic prosperity in some of the country’s most underdeveloped regions.

A four-lane expressway from Hakla near Islamabad to Dera Ismail Khan will reduce travel time between Dera Ismail Khan and Islamabad from five hours to two and half hours.

The first component following a virgin alignment was planned from Hakla near Islamabad from M-2 motorway to Yarik at border of Khyebr Pakhtunkhaw and Balochistan.

The second part of the corridor is 540 kilometers Yarik-Zhob-Quetta National Highway to be upgraded to motorway standard, thus reducing distance from Islamabad to Quetta to only 830 kilometers and eight hours travel time on this new motorway standard four-lane expressway.

The estimated cost of upgrading Yarik to Quetta via Zhob section is Rs142 billion. The Hakla-Yarik section which has been reported to be 69% complete by the CPEC chairman will pass through Pindigheb, Tarap in Attock, Duadkhel and Isakhel in Mianwali, and Kundal, Abulkhail and Yarik in Dera Ismail Khan district.

The Hakla-Yarik section will have 12 interchanges at Dhok Sayedan, Thati Kalran (Fateh Jang), Kharpa (Pindigheb), Tarap (Jandh), Daud Khel, Kot Balian, Isakhel (Mianwali), Kundal, Abul Khail and Yarik in Dera Ismail Khan. The project has four service areas at distance of 60 kilometers, and three large bridges over Indus, Swan, and Khuram rivers.