China's new Silk Road could be boom or "dust" for Pakistan. Locals living in the region bordering China are yet to be convinced about the benefits that they will receive from the initiative as the Silk Road gets under construction in northern Pakistan.

Annually, Sost, a gateway town in the region, accrues millions in customs duties. But there is little to show for it in the town with its rickety stalls of corrugated iron engraved with Mandarin and Urdu texts, and its dusty petrol station. It is the first stop along a new $46 billion economic corridor designed by China in Pakistan.

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According to Tribune, drivers from China enters through the Khunjerab Pass, the world's biggest paved border crossing at 15,000 feet above sea level. They unload their goods encircled by the magnificent Karakoram Mountains, covered with snow. 

Their Pakistani colleagues pick up the goods and transport them through the length of the country from there to Karachi, some 1,200 miles away on the Arabian Sea. In the future goods will be taken to Gwadar, where Beijing has been given management of a port for a grand project that will allow China have greater access to the Middle East, Africa and Europe, Business Insider reported. 

Until recently, the main highway leading out of Sost was cut off just south of the town. It has been blocked for 5 years by a landslide which dammed the Hunza River and resulted in the 10 kilometers long lake of Attabad, with it is ice-blue glacier water. 

China simply tunneled through it rather than drive around the mountain, sending thousands of workers in a titanic effort that took at least three years and cost at least $275 million, MSN News reported.

A round-faced entrepreneur, who deals with clothes in the Sost bazaar by the name Amjad Ali, joked that they have suffered because of the lake. In the Sost bazaar, a new Chinese highway has replaced the old Silk Road, a tortuous dirt track travelled for centuries by trade caravans.

Residents of Sost had to cross the lake by boat in a journey that took at least an hour before the tunnel was created. Amjad Ali said that they hope business will take off and tourists will flock their town through the tunnel.

Another resident, Mohammed Israr rejoiced that they are once again connected by road to the rest of Pakistan.  But their optimism was kept in check by fear that the trucks might simply drive on by, leaving Sost to receive "dust".

Trader Noor-e-din, who has a russet moustache, argued that the Chinese care only for their own economic interest. He said they risk spending their days counting trucks drive past.

Noor-e-din predicted that Islamabad will collect millions in customs duty from Sost while doing little for the town.

For his part, Israr voiced concerns about a land grab by wealthy Pakistanis and Chinese from the south. Some of the latter have approached farmers in the area in a move to snap up their fields.

TagsChina's new Silk Road, Pakistan, Khunjerab Pass, Sost, Silk Road, Mandarin, Urdu, China-Pakistan, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor