Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Study of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Northern Route Road Construction Activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan-China relations date back to the Silk Route, but the formal ties began in 1950. Pakistan was the first Muslim country to recognize China as People's Republic and Pakistan International Airlines was the first airline in the world to operate a service to and from China. China has steadily appeared as Pakistan’s largest trading partner (Holtom et al. 2013). The Pak-China relationship has grown steadily since 1960s and now the two countries privilege a deep friendship. The construction of Karakorum Highway (KKH) in 1972 further strengthened this bond. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a part of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative. It is a multifaceted framework of infrastructure, energy and other developmental projects designed to promote regional connectivity among Pakistan, China, and Eurasia. CPEC was inaugurated as a $46 billion investment in April 2015 (Rifaat & Maini 2016) but as of 2017 its worth has increased to $62 billion (Siddique 2017). Because of CPEC, China will discover a relaxed access to the Middle East, Africa and Europe, whereas Pakistan’s infrastructure and overall economy will be modernized (Irshad 2015). Many projects have been started under CPEC, including railways network construction, establishment of power plants, and development of Gwadar Port, economic zones and social sector projects, but most prominent is across the country construction of roadway networks which can be divided into northern section and three other alignments, like western (the limelight among the roadway projects, providing unobstructed route from Kashgar, Xinjiang, China through Pakistan to Gwadar), eastern and central (Annexure I). Development of 2700 km network of roads include the reconstruction of KKH (254 km), Peshawar-Karachi Motorway (392 km) and N-30 (110 km), and up gradation of N-50 Phase-I (210 km) at an estimated investment of $34 billion (Saeed 2017). CPEC will link seaports in Gwadar and Karachi with Northern Pakistan as well as points further North in Western China and Central Asia (Kugelman 2015). It will be used for cargo transport, minerals, energy production and commercial activities. There are numerous benefits of CPEC roadway networks in Pakistan. Most of these benefits are social and economic but need to avoid all possible environmental loss/es. These benefits will include fulfilling of country’s energy demands, international standard roads and railway network, capacity building, and increase in employment rate.