Beijing is set to upgrade a 1,163-miles track from Karachi to Peshawar near the Afghan border with an $8 billion loan to Pakistan. It’s part of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road trade initiative, which includes $60 billion of badly-needed works financed in Pakistan. Now the unprofitable state-owned Pakistan Railways has doubled its revenue to 40.1 billion Pakistani rupees ($362 million) in the past five years and aims to do so again over the same time period, Parveen Agha, secretary of Pakistan Railways, said in an interview in Islamabad. “Now more passengers are using the rail and so our sales have increased.”The government is also eyeing increased freight trade. “With Chinese investment Pakistan Railways can be the best.” Bloomberg

Source: Mint April 13, 2018 07:52 UTC