Pakistan and China recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and issued tenders for the railroad project that will link Karachi to Mazar Sharif.
The project will help commercially viable transportation of goods from Afghanistan, China and other Central Asian States to Karachi, besides boosting trade and tourism activities between the participating countries.
This comes as a part of Pakistan and China’s long-term partnership under CPEC which is supposed to be completed by 2030.
The project is expected to create around 20,000 direct jobs for local people while it will also create over 150,000 indirect jobs in the country.
Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, the head of the Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI), expressed his hope that the project would mark the beginning of a new era of advancement and development in the area. Sarhadi said the project would help locals, students, and patients. He also believes that laying out the railway track between the two neighboring countries will boost trade and economic activities between the two.
He also expressed his appreciation for the Pakistan Railways’ declaration that encroachments on the Kohat-Tall track would be removed in order to complete the Karachi-Mazhar Sharif railway line.
He pointed out that the uprooting of the railway had stopped Tall’s timber trade and the importation of products from Afghanistan, including dried fruits, coal, and gypsum.
