Evaluation of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor Road Network: Shortest Route, Regional Distribution, and Robustness

Abstract

Purpose - The transport road network plays a significant role in the economic development of any country. An appropriate road network not only reduces transportation cost but it also serves as an infrastructural enabler for further economic development. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is part of the Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative”, seeking better connectivity between Asia, Europe, and Africa. The major part of the CPEC project is the development of a road network linking the port city of Gwadar (Pakistan) with Kashgar (China). This paper focuses on the quantitative evaluation of alternate routes within the CPEC road network inside Pakistan with regard to travel times, road development in provinces, a balanced distribution of road network among provinces, and robustness against road closures. Methodology - The network is developed as an undirected graph with nodes as cities and edges as interlinking roads. Based on publicly available data, the paper identifies the shortest path from Gwadar to Khunjerab pass (Pakistan-China Border) and measures the distribution of the travelled distance among Pakistan’s provinces for each alternate route. Moreover, the robustness of road network is evaluated by a knock-out analysis. Results - The results showed that an unconsidered route by the planners promises the shortest travel time and that some proposed routes have significantly unbalanced share amongst provinces. There is a variation in robustness between the alternate routes, but with any route selected, the road network is able to remain functional even after closure of multiple connections.
 Practical Implications - This study provides a decision-making toolbox for analysis and policy-making related to economic corridors e.g. CPEC – which is at its inception phase, and still tied to limited availability of data. Originality - The present study is novel because no prior study has covered the road network analysis of CPEC. Also, robustness and topographical analyses with respect to CPEC have not previously been undertaken.