@Kashif Sheikh. I am following this development very closely. So far the Chinese have not finalized any agreement with anyone. One thing is confirmed however,that government is not giving them any free land here, like it has done in Gawadar. Over here, it will be 100 percent investment by China itself. I will share whenever I have any confirmed news in this regard.
Please don’t forget to mention about PECHS.
@Aziz. Brother I don't think anyone over here is in any position to recommend any project to the Chinese. The decision will be made by their own experts.
@Raza. I am hearing through my sources that a team of Chinese officials and engineers was in town a few days ago to survey and identify possible sites for this particular project. Do you have any info on that?
Any new development or progress on CPEC project in Islamabad?
@Awais. Sorry about the late reply, I missed your previous post. Yes an Eight member team was in town in July to workout details for “China Zone” in Islamabad. The team has surveyed the potential sites and will be coming back in September probably to finalize the project. According to my sources Chinese want to start this ASAP and want construction to begin within 3-4 months. Lets see, what comes out of this.
They also considering lifestyle residency project in G13 for this purpose…
The possibility could be there but it would be surprising for me because as per my information they want to build villas whereas lifestyle residency is an apartments project. Also it doesn't meet their requirement of being located On the main CPEC (Not even on eastern or western branch).
The officials for whom this zone is being developed are not going to be manual laborers since there is no SEZ being planned in Islamabad nor are Chinese executing any CPEC related infrastructure project in or around Islamabad. These will be senior level Chinese government officials and private sector logistics and supply chain specialists who will be supervising the CPEC operations once it becomes functional.
Contract for construction of CPEC Western route from Hakla awarded. Previously the PM had inaugurated the Western Route work of CPEC from D.I. Khan side.
Http://www.dawn.com/news/1285766
Could this act as a trigger for more activity in the area?
The way they are treating Western Route is strange. 260 Km divided into five phases. Contracts being awarded phase wise as if this side has lowest priority.
Perhaps they are looking for five inaugurations of this 260 km link?
@Shakoor. This is a very standard tactic employed by PML govt which allows them to push through mega projects on a fast track basis. Splitting a big project into smaller ones has many advantages. First, at the approval stage, the higher the project cost the higher the approval forum, greater technicalities and consequent delays. By splitting a project, approvals can be obtained from a much lower forum than ECC.
Secondly, splitting allows faster implementation. Each contractor is responsible for a small section of the project in which he has to show his performance, so work gets done faster. Recent examples include the Islamabad Metro project, Lahore ring road etc.
Lastly, and maybe more importantly, this also allows the government to provide an "opportunity" to more contractors rather than dishing it all out to one. However if past record is anything to go by, this should result in faster progress.
Hi all
Does this mean that the CPEC road will not pass by Multi Orchards? I spoke to some dealers and they are still adamant that it will still go through the original route near ROS and eventually join Hakla interchange. Any confirmed news?
@Ali1. This is typical dealer talk when they speak half truths. When they say it will pass "near" ROS they are probably correct because the M-I motorway section from Burhan to Hakla is main CPEC. ROS is about 2 km from this section of M-I.
On the other hand, when they say it will still go through the "original route", which they were selling to their clients in the past, that unfortunately is a lie. Previously, the Brahma Bahter interchange was planned to be the split-off point from where the Eastern and Western routes would have separated. In that case, the Bahter road on which ROS is located would have become the Western corridor or in other words the CPEC itself, resulting in expansion of this road into at least a four lane highway going all the way to D.I. Khan.
However that plan is now shelved, specially after protest from KPK government who wanted the Western corridor to be a motorway as well. The new split-off point is now Hakla, from where the western route will branch off. This will be a new motorway whose construction contract has already been awarded.
@Raza thank you for clarification. Do you know where exactly is Hakla as I cant find it on map? Thanks
Hakla is the first rest area when you leave Islamabad toward Peshawar on M1.... I think
Regards
You are welcome Ali1. Yes Mr Khan is right. You can find Hakla village located between the M-I motorway and Gulshan-e-Sehat housing society E-18 near tarnol interchange. It also is the first service area when going towards Peshawar.
Allah knows how many times more they will change it. I have plots in AWT hopefully it will have some positive impact
Ali1 previously AWT had become sidelined in the race for hosting the China zone. When the Chinese experts first came to Islamabad to scout for an appropriate site to set up the China CPEC center in Islamabad, AWT was on their priority list because of its strategic location right on M-I/ CPEC. Their main concern was with the issues facing the interchange without which it was useless for them, but the AWT management couldn't do much about it at that time.
Now that work on the interchange seems to have resumed and is being completed, I think it might have emerged as a dark horse in the race. A high level Chinese team will be visiting Islamabad next month to finalize the site of their project. If they manage to get this interchange project in some good shape by then, AWT has a fair chance of securing this heavy Chinese investment. I told you this because you are already invested in AWT, otherwise I wouldn't recommend anyone to invest there because of this possibility just now. The decision will be made entirely by the Chinese themselves and only they will decide where they want to put their money. Good luck with your Investments.
Planning minister Ahsan Iqbal says that work on the Western Route is underway and it will be ready by 2018.
Http://www.dawn.com/news/1287552
Looks like CPEC may start generating effects by the time of next elections.
Hakla interchange will be built or not ? How it impact Gulshan-e-sehat if there is no access to this road through interchange ??
I was passing by motor way and saw cuts of CPEC near HAKLA rest area, which is good for Zone 2 but what I observed that the CPEC route at Hakla is just a connecting point for motorway and CPEC not an interchange, so no direct access of any society which is near by and no rates boost accordingly.
Only AWT has some edge, which is near hakla CPEC Hakla connecting point