WASHINGTON, Dec 24: The World Bank has approved $200 million for Pakistan to improve the country’s national highways, the bank announced on Wednesday.

“Improving the highways will boost Pakistan’s trade competitiveness by reducing road transport costs and improving safety,” said John Wall, the bank’s country director for Pakistan.

The bank approved what is to be known as Pakistan’s Highways Rehabilitation Project on Tuesday, a day before announcing its assistance.

The project, partly funded with a $150 million creditand a $50 million loan, will finance approximately 856km of national highway improvements along the Peshawar-Islamabad-Lahore-Karachi corridor, which is also known as national highways N-5 and M-9. It will also support key reforms to ensure sustainable delivery of a productive and efficient national highway network, the bank said.

“The project will help the National Highways Authority shift focus from a highway constructor to a network operator role and adopt a sustainable network management strategy,” said Navaid Akhtar Qureshi, the World Bank Task Leader for the project.

“It will support ‘progressive commercialization’ of NHA operations. This means that those who use the highways, help pay for its upkeep, and that network operations are increasingly managed like a business,” he added.