Pakistan expects to secure soft loans from China of about $1 billion this week for three road projects in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a official said on Tuesday. The roads lie on the western route of CPEC, a $55 billion network of roads, rail links, power plants and other infrastructure connecting western China to Pakistan's southern port of Gwadar.

They include roads from Raikot to Thakot, Yarik to Zhob and from Basima to Khuzdar, Ashraf Zaman, spokesman for National Highway Authority (NHA) told Reuters. Zaman said a deal was reached with the Chinese to finance the three additional roads in November. "Hopefully, agreement will be signed between the two countries in this regard in China-Pakistan Joint Co-operation Committee (JCC) meeting to be held on December 29 in Beijing," he said.

Copyright Reuters, 2016