China, Pakistan plan to modernize vital railway link

China and Pakistan have agreed to jointly upgrade the 1,600-kilometer railway linking southern and northern Pakistan as part of a move to push forward construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a Pakistani special envoy said on Sunday.

"China and Pakistan have signed memorandums of understanding to increase the speed of the railway connecting Karachi and Peshawar, as well as upgrade its signal system and railway stations," Zafaruddin Mahmood, Pakistan's special envoy on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, told China Daily on the sidelines of the ongoing Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

The deals, signed on Saturday, also include one on the construction of the Havelian land port, which is on the Karakoram Highway that connects Pakistan and Kashgar in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.