ISLAMABAD - The phase-II (Havelian-Thakot) Karakoram Highway (120 km) reflects the high-standard and rapid pace work of the CPEC-related projects.
A media team, during visit to the project witnessed unprecedented commitment, professional caliber and hard work on the part of the Chinese company that is working day and night to get it completed at the earliest.
It is our utmost effort to make the highway open for the public by March 2020, said Zhu Jiangfan project manager of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) while briefing the visiting journalists at the construction’s site.
Havelian-Thakot is described as the early harvest project of CPEC with the length of 120 kilo meters. Work on it was commenced on 1st Sep, 2016.
Since, May 2018, 1637 Chinese staff, 7097 Pakistani workers with 3254 sets of mechanical equipments are employed on the project.
The project sets to become a major source of employment for the locals. The further development of the project will bring more opportunities, he added.
The cost of project is dollar 1.3 billion and till now 50 % work has been completed. It was divided into three sections for the smooth and speedy construction . The first sections is from Havelian to Abbottabad with 27.425 km length having 4 lanes highway standard, the second stage is from Abbottabad to Mansehra with 11.880 km length with two lanes expressway standard while the third sections is from Mansehra to Thakot having 78.819 km with two lanes.
He also added that the whole project includes 60 large bridges, 45 middle and small bridges, 11 flyovers and 6 tunnels in the mainline and the construction was extremely difficult but the commitment of both Chinese and Pakistani workers have made the smooth progress possible. More than 200 mountains were cut for the construction of the road with heave and modern machinery but this difficult work did not let down the commitment of the work force committed for the execution of project smoothly.
Under such difficult conditions, the staff always adheres to the vision of “making world smoother, making cities more livable and living better” and abide by the corporate tenet of “building road and bridges, contributing to the society”, added Zhu.
The completion of the project will cut down the travelling time from 6 hours to two hours and it will also explore new business and job opportunities for the locals.
Project manager also told that the construction work on the project is in full swing and the co-working of Chinese and Pakistani workers is a best opportunity to learn from the experiences of each other.
Shared working does not only give opportunity to learn from eachother’s experience but it also gives understanding of different cultures, traditions and professional values.
The smooth execution of this ambitious project will open bring new era of prosperity to the underdeveloped areas of the province.