LAHORE, Aug 26: Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to open a third route between them from Qili Ghulam Khan, about 150km south of Peshawar, to facilitate the increasing bilateral trade.

“We have decided to open the third border point with Afghanistan because the two existing points at Torkham and Chaman are already choking with traffic,” Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz told newsmen during his visit to the Medium Taxpayers Unit here on Tuesday.

He said the “existing trade points were being used to their capacity and the two neighbours urgently required another route in view of an expected increase in the volume of the Afghan Transit Trade as well as the start of reconstruction in that war-ravaged country”.

However, it is yet not clear as to when the new trade route is going to open. “It depends upon the provincial government (of NWFP). We would have a customs post at Qili Ghulam Khan no sooner than a road is constructed to allow cross-border traffic,” Central Board of Revenue chairman Riaz Malik told Dawn.

The finance minister said the government also planned to “upgrade” the existing trade routes by providing modern facilities for trucking and stationing. The Asian Development Bank, he said, had agreed to finance roads and other infrastructure and talks were underway with the Manila-based multilateral donor in this regard.

He said the new route would help build the cross-border traffic between the two neighbours a linkage with the Indus Highway.

In addition to this, Mr Shaukat said, the “government had already agreed to carry out a feasibility report on the rail link between Chaman and Kandahar”. “The work on the feasibility would begin in a few days. The rail link will make us more competitive,” he said and added both Pakistan and Afghanistan were negotiating with the financiers (to raise funds for the project).

The volume of exports to Kabul, the minister said, had already touched $400 million and was expected to enhance rapidly with the start of the reconstruction work there. He said some $1.5 billion was expected to be spent on the Afghan reconstruction in the near future. Pakistan, he added, was “well placed to take advantage of the forthcoming opportunity to raise the volume of its exports to Kabul”.