Work on M-8 Motroway top priority: Chairman CPEC Asim Bajwa

Chairman China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Lt Gen (r) Asim Saleem Bajwa assured on Sunday that work on the M-8 Motorway, connecting Gwadar in Balochistan to Ratedero in Sindh province, will start as "top priority".

Bajwa, who is also the special assistant to the prime minister, shared that the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has approved building the 146km Hoshab to Awaran section of the motorway at the cost of Rs26 billion.

"This road in remote districts of Kech/Awaran is a beacon of light for impoverished South Balochistan, will change lives," said the CPEC chairman.

In 2016, the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab Motorway, a key part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project linking the Gwadar seaport to the rest of Pakistan.

The inauguration ceremony was also attended by the then chief of army staff General (retd) Raheel Sharif.

The 892km long Gwadar-Ratodero Motorway (M-8) is a vital part of the western, central and eastern routes of CPEC, and will serve all Gwadar-bound traffic.

The motorway project was initially started in 2004 but could not take off due to poor law and order situation, until it was awarded to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) in June 2014.