ISLAMABAD, May 10: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to fund a mega cross-border infrastructure development programme aimed at creating a sub-regional corridor from the Gwadar port to Afghanistan and Central Asia, at a cost of $455.7 million (Rs27.3 billion).

Officials told Dawn that under the programme, a “trade facilitation and land border crossing authority” would also be established to supervise all significant land border crossings and facilitate freight and passenger and transit traffic.

An elaborated programme in this respect has been finalized to provide sub-regional connectivity and trade facilitation into Afghanistan and Central Asian states. The objective is to support regional cooperation by removing or relaxing physical, institutional and other barriers to improve transportation and increase trade. Similarly, it will support preparation and adoption of cross-border agreements for road transport, including movement of containers, and ensure improved road sector efficiency on the main transport corridors in Pakistan.

The scope of the new road venture also included rehabilitating key national highways that are part of the sub-regional corridor selected from the existing draft medium-term development framework for 2005-10.

The objective is to ensure the cross-border infrastructure development and institutional strengthening of the National Highway Authority (NHA) and other relevant agencies. It will also support the implementation of ADB’s sub-regional cooperative initiatives and relevant policy framework agreed between the government and the bank.

The ADB has decided to offer most of the funding (Rs18.5 billion), while Rs8.8 billion will be made available by the NHA for a programme that also included the rehabilitation of eight national highway sections covering a total length of 835.7 km.

Its road section included: Hub-Uthal section (N-25) 84.5 km; Multan-Muzaffargarh section (N-70) 36.2 km; Khanozai-Mughal Kot (N-50) 333 km; Hasanabdal-Abbotabad-Mansehra (N-35) 90 km; Sukkur-Jacobabad (N-65) 65 km; Tarnol-Fatheh Jang (N-80) 35 km; and Fateh Jang-Jand (N-80) 68 km.

Following a series of meeting with the ADB officials, all the concerns were addressed in terms of physical improvement in the national highway connection with Afghanistan and Central Asian states. An internationally reputed firm has been engaged as the engineer responsible for the “contract administration and construction supervision” for massive road connectivity across Pakistan as well as Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The ADB, the officials said, had confirmed that it would finance the civil work for cross-border facilitation situated at Chaman (Balochistan) and Torkham (NWFP).

The ministry of communications, which is the sponsoring agency of this project, has pleaded for the new rehabilitation programme, as 76 per cent of NHA’s road network has cracked. But the rutting data shows that 58 per cent of NHA’s road network has rutted. And once the road network was rehabilitated it would result in a saving of Rs240 billion in road transportation costs alone.