Karakoram Highway the lake by small vessels, to be reloaded onto trucks at the other end. In July 2012 Pakistan began constructing a revised route around the lake at a higher elevation with five new tunnels, with total length of 7.12 km, and two new bridges. The work was contracted out to the China Road & Bridge Corporation (CRBC) and was completed in September 2015—see Karakorum Highway Realignment (China-Pakistan Friendship Tunnels) below. At in length, the Pakistani section of the highway starts at Abbottabad, although the N-35 of which KKH is now part, officially starts from Hasan Abdal. The highway meets the
Reconstruction of the Karakoram Highway Bank of China and the China Development Bank. For comparison, loans for previous Pakistani infrastructure projects financed by the World Bank carried an interest rate between 5% and 8.5%, while interest rates on market loans approach 12%. The China Development Bank will finance the $920 million towards the cost of reconstruction of the portion of the Karakoram Highway between Hasan Abdal and Raikot. An addition $1.26 billion will be lent by the China Exim Bank for the construction of the Havelian to Thakot portion of this stretch of roadway, to be dispersed as low-interest rate concessional loans. Construction works on