Karaoke Highway A Popular Tourist Attraction

Rukhshan Mir (@rukhshanmir) Published May 23, 2018 | 02:28 PM

The Karakoram Highway is a popular tourist attraction and is one of the highest paved roads in the world, passing though the Karakoram mountain range

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd May, 2018 ) :The Karakoram Highway is a popular tourist attraction and is one of the highest paved roads in the world, passing though the Karakoram mountain range.

The Karakoram Highway, also known as the Friendship Highway in China, was built by the governments of Pakistan and China. It was started in 1959 and was completed and opened to the public in 1979.

The route of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) traces one of the many paths of the ancient silk road. The highway, connecting the Gilgit-Baltistan region to the ancient silk road, runs approximately 1,300 km (810 mi) from Kashgar, a city in the Xinjiang region of China, to Abbotabad.

An extension of the highway southwest from Abbotabad, in the form of the N-35 highway, meets the Grand Trunk Road, N-5, at Hasan Abdal.

As part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), reconstruction and up-gradation work on Karakoram Highway (KKH) are underway.

The KKH spans the 806-kilometre-long distance between the China-Pakistan border and the town of Hasan Abdal. At Burhan Interchange near Hasan Abdal, the existing M1 Motorway will intersect the Karakoram Highway.

From there, access onwards to Islamabad and Lahore continues as part of the existing M1 and M2 motorways, while Hasan Abdal will also be at intersection of the Eastern Alignment, and the Western Alignment which will lead towards the port city of Gwadar.