ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: The Balochistan government has decided to obtain a loan from Japan for construction and repair of the Coastal Highway and other routes linking the province with the rest of the country, provincial Communications and Works Minister Prince Faisal Daud said on Tuesday .

Speaking at the Islamabad Stock Exchange, he said the loan would be utilized mostly for repairing roads which had been severely damaged recently due to heavy rains and floods.

The minister said he would soon visit Japan to negotiate the terms and conditions of the loan.

He said the loan would also be utilized for the reconstruction of damaged bridges on the coastal and national highways.

During the rains and floods, a major portion of the Coastal Highway between Layari and Lakhra was washed away.

Around a dozen bridges on the Economic Cooperation Organization Highway were also damaged or washed away.

The minister said 3,000km road channels would be constructed and repaired with the loans of $150 million to be provided by the Asian Development Bank on lenient rates.

The work on the project is expected to be started in November.

The roads will be used to link the Gwadar port with the Central Asian republics and Afghanistan.

The minister requested the ISE to help the Balochistan government establish a stock exchange in the province so that the businessmen could get maximum benefit from the capital markets.

“We would be looking for technical expertise from the ISE in this regard. We would take up the issue with the Balochistan chief minister,” he said.

He said the government had yet to explore the mineral resources of Balochistan, which could be useful for the whole country.

“We are lagging much behind in the business of minerals, gold and precious stones because of ill-planning,” he said.

Answering a question, he said more routes would be identified for expanding trade with Afghanistan.

ISE Chairman Chaudhry Mohammad Sharif said a programme of investors education about capital markets had been initiated by the exchange.

He said the exchange had recently launched an investors hot line with universal access numbers. The hot line, he said, would provide short recorded messages on topics of interest to the investors.

The ISE had also initiated steps to make available trading facilities outside the exchange’s premises, he said. The initiative, he said, would broaden the base of the markets.

“Now people sitting in far-flung areas of Balochistan can also trade through the ISE members,” he said.