Pakistan receives funding from China for rapid transit project

A branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's largest commercial bank announced on Tuesday it provided short-term financing of 1.36 billion Indian rupees ($20 million) for a rapid transit line project in Pakistan last month.

The 26-kilometer Orange Line project currently under construction in Lahore, the second largest city and a major industrial hub of Pakistan, is being built according to Chinese standards and will use metro vehicles and electromechanical systems made in China.

It is the first large rail transit project launched under the bilateral economic corridor between China and Pakistan as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to promote connectivity amongst Asian, European and African continents and their adjacent seas.

As the only Chinese commercial bank in Pakistan, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd has been actively supporting projects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The bank issued a $25 million loan for the 50-megawatt Dawood wind farm project in December 2015 and $100 million export buyer’s credit for the construction of a 49.5-megawatt Sachal wind farm in Pakistan's Sindh province the same year.