ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Nov 29 performed the groundbreaking of a section of motorway in the country’s northwest, signaling the implementation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor agreement.

The 60-km-long 4-lane fenced Hazara Motorway in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province will cost 33 billion rupees ($297 million) and will be completed in two years.

Officials told the prime minister at a briefing that the project will create hundreds of thousands of job opportunities, possibilities of new business ideas, and socio-economic uplift of the whole region.

The prime minister also announced the construction of a railway track to link Hazara with Karachi and Quetta while another track will be constructed to link Hazara with Muzaffarabad.

Sharif said at the groundbreaking ceremony that the completion of the motorway project would “change the fate of the people of Hazara Division and bring prosperity to the area.”

He said the government has inked agreements with China worth billions of dollars in the energy sector which would end the power shortage in the country.