ISLAMABAD: “The construction of New Gwadar Airport will start as soon as the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has granted approval of the project. The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has already approved the project,” Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) Chairman Dostain Khan Jamaldini told the Senate Committee on Ports and Shipping here the other day.
Gwadar is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea and at the mouth of the Persian Gulf just outside the Straits of Hormuz, near the key shipping routes in and out of the Persian Gulf in Balochistan.
Briefing the committee about current state of preparedness of GPA, he said that GPA had obtained 584 acres of land from Pakistan Navy and provided alternative 1000 acres of land to Navy to shift their installation there. He said that CDWP had approved construction project of Expressway which had sent for the approval of ECNEC which was awaited anxiously.
Similarly, Dostain said that several other projects related to making the Gwadar Port functional have been approved by CDWP including establishment of Pak-China T& V institution at Gwadar Port, Pak-China Friendship Hospital, “Now the construction of Break Water will be completed next year while feasibility report of coal power plant was under the process of finalization,” he added saying that three major projects prescribed in Public Sector Development Plan (PSDP) for the fiscal year 2014-15 had been completed.
He further said that Chinese investors were keen to invest in project like establishment of Chinese Display Center a Gwadar, setting up steel mill, laying gas pipeline between Gwadar and Nawabshah and construction of LNG terminal. Moreover, he said that Kazakhstan had shown interest in the construction of Green Solace at Gwadar Port. He said that the new mission for Gwadar Port was To cater for all ships and all types of cargo ships, to facilitate trade and industrial and economic development, nationally, locally and regionally, to operate in a manner that is efficient, effective, competitive, transparent and fair to all and to remain aligned with expectations of local and international customers and stakeholders
“The development of Gwadar Port will bring economic gains to Balochistan and potentially capable to act as industrial power house, a suitable transit and transshipment hub. Currently, it is becoming almost a proverbal to narrate Gwadar Deep Sea Port as a “Game Changer” in trade and economic development,” he added.
