Hell and Chaos

Karakoram Highway


From the Hellen and Chaos blog of Thursday 9 June 2011

 The so-called "Ninth Wonder of the World".  Thirteen hundred kilometers (= 810 miles) long this colossal construction project connects China with Pakistan.  It passes through the Karakoram mountain range and the Khunjerab Pass, reaching an altitude close to 5 km. 

China and Pakistan began the project in 1956 and completed it in 1986.  The route cost the lives of eight-hundred-and-ten Pakistanis and eighty-two Chinese and follows the trail of the Silk Road.  Due to the fact that it crosses through Kashmir, this highway is considered of huge strategic importance worldwide. 


On June 30th 2006, an agreement was signed between China and Pakistan to recondition the Karakoram Highway:

• Asphalt on the Chinese side was to be extended onto the Pakistani side; 
• Its width was to be increased from between ten meters and thirty meters; And, 
• It will be substantially reinforced to withstand heavy vehicles and extreme weather conditions. 

Consequently, the transport potential of the huge highway will be tripled!  At the same time the highway will be connected through the Gwadar-Dalbandin railway to Gwadar port, located in Balochistan, Pakistan.  The railway is financially and technically supported by China and which reaches up to Rawalpindi.

The KKH is best traveled in the spring or early autumn.  Harsh winter snows can shut the highway down for extended periods and heavy monsoon rains around July and August may cause occasional landslides that can block the road for hours or more.  The border crossing between China and Pakistan at Khunjerab Pass is only open between May 1 and December 31.

Karakoram Highway In China
The road's strategic military importance is important.  Pakistan and China have both fought Himalayan wars with India, with whom they are traditionally not on friendly terms.  China got into trouble for selling to Pakistan, silkworm missiles that came via the Karakoram Highway, whose bridges are made for heavy military equipment and tanks.[Source: John McCarry, National Geographic March 1994] 
http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=441&catid=15&subcatid=104