The Punjab government has been left without funding for the Southern Loop of the Lahore Ring Road after the Chinese refused to pay for the construction of the road, The Express Tribune has learned.
The government had been negotiating with the Chinese to seek investment for the construction of the remaining 48 kilometres of the Southern Loop and hoped to clinch a deal by this April. But when Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited China earlier this year, the investors showed more of an interest in the proposed Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System than the Ring Road. The government tried to convince the Chinese to invest on a build-operate-transfer basis or a public-private partnership, but failed. 
