'New airport to become operational by June 2019,' says DG Gwadar Development Authority

In today's Brief Recording section, BR Research presents the last of our ongoing series of interviews that we conducted in our recent field visit to the sleepy coastal town of Gwadar (See also Brief Recording section January 23 & 27, 2017). While the first two interviews focused on Gwadar Port Authority and Gwadar Industrial Estate zone, respectively, today we focus on the city of Gwadar. And who better to talk to than the man in charge: Dr Sajjad Baloch.
Dr Sajjad is Director General of Gwadar Development Authority (GDA), who before joining the GDA had served in various capacities for the government of Balochistan. He earned his doctorate in civil engineering from the City University of New York. Aside from his academic (teaching and research) experience, Dr Sajjad has also been involved in many research activities in New York, including developing the guidelines for economic evaluation of highway projects, and conducting economic and financial feasibility studies of toll truck ways in the United States. He is a member of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), and is an affiliate of Transportation Research Board.
In this interview, Dr Sajjad talks about the city's plans, current and the likely revision, its infrastructural needs, the timelines during which some of the projects will be completed, and also sheds light on the reasons behind slow progress.
BR Research: We would like to get down to the specifics of Gwadar city in terms of the targets and timelines for the city's hard and soft infrastructure. But before that we would like to know the population projections for Gwadar.
Sajjad Baloch: The Gwadar city itself is nothing without its port. Development on the port leads to growth in the city. The current population of Gwadar city is around 0.1 million, which is projected to grow to around 1.7 million by 2050. The population projections were done back in 2003 but due to delay in port operations, the population did not grow as projected. We had projected it to be 0.135 million by 2010, but in 2016, we were still at 0.1 million. We are now in the process of revising the projections.
BRR: GDA's master plan has allocated nearly 170,000 acres for residential purposes and 120,000 acres for industrial purposes. What's the wisdom behind this allocation?
SB: That allocation is based on certain international standards that specify the ratio between industrial and residential usage of land as well as the population and industrial growth. However, Gwadar city's master plan is being revised to develop Gwadar as a Smart Port City on the orders of the Prime Minister. A Chinese company, FHDI, a subsidiary of China Communications Constructions Company, has been nominated for this task.
BRR: Will the new master plan be made from scratch or will there only be tweaking to the old one?
SB: No, the existing master plan will only be reviewed because the statistics did not turn out the way we had projected. However, this time they will incorporate the ICT and the concept of smart port city, since the Prime Minister wants Gwadar to be developed as a smart port city. Plus, there will be further integration of Gwadar port master plan and Gwadar city master plan.
BRR: What is the GDA doing about water shortage?
SB: Currently, the most critical issue is water and power. The demand for water is currently 4.6 million gallons per day, out of which around 2 to 2.5 million is taken from Akra Kaur Dam. By 2020, demand for water will reach 12 million gallons per day.
We have conceived two plans to address these needs. The first of these is to connect the city with fresh water reservoirs and dams. There is a CPEC project in which Swad Dam (67 kilometers from Gwadar) and Shadi Kaur Dam (160 km) will be connected to Gwadar city. This will provide 7.5 million gallons per day of additional water to Gwadar.
BRR: Have these two dams been built and are operational or is there work to be done on those?
SB: These dams have been completed. Swad Dam was completed by provincial resources and Shadi Kaur Dam was completed through federal resources. The inauguration of these two dams was done by the Prime Minister in November 2016.
The reason for having two dams was to have an alternate dam in case one of them is running dry. We can't leave the city entirely dependent on the rain water; hence a 5 million gallon per day desalination plant has been approved by the Planning Commission, and its framework has been agreed upon in the recent Joint Co-ordination Committee meeting in Beijing.
We have divided the project into three components. The first phase is to connect the Swad Dam with the city. This will start in the first week of February 2017 and will be completed by November 2017. The second phase is the desalination plant and to connect the Shadi Kaur Dam. This process will take four to five months to kick off these projects. It will be completed by August 2018 and will provide additional water of 12.5 million gallons per day. By 2020 or 2025, we will have sufficient water, even with the increased demand.
BRR: Does the GDA have plans for treating waste water and solid waste once the city population goes up?
SB: Absolutely, there is a treatment plant for waste water as well. The sewerage water does not go to the sea, but is treated instead, which is then used for agricultural purposes. The Government of Baluchistan has conceived a project for sewerage system for the existing town. The water will be treated and used to make the city greener.
The municipal committee is currently responsible for solid waste management but it is not efficient; hence a project has been conceived for this as well. Gwadar's solid waste is around 300 tonnes, but will increase to 3,000 tonnes per day as the population grows. We have selected a dumping site in the north, where some material will be recycled, while the rest will go to the dumping and composting site.
BRR: What is the power situation in Gwadar? As we understand, things have not really got going on that front.
SB: We are getting 70MW from Iran, which also caters to Turbat and Panjgur. Gwadar is getting only 14MW, which is way less than our demand of 30-35MW. As the port and the free zone become operational, the demand for power will grow. We have projected that by 2020, Gwadar would need 120MW, and that could go up to 500MW by 2030.
In order to meet this, there are two plans. One is a 300MW coal power plant, included in CPEC. There was a delay due to the Ministry of Water and Power's disagreement on demand projections, but now the Prime Minister has issued a directive regarding this. After this directive, there was a meeting of the Joint Co-ordination Committee in Beijing. The JCC directed the concerned authorities to issue the Letter of Intent within a week.
BRR: How soon can we expect that project to start?
SB: Well, the Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) issues a Letter of Intent and they take clearance from CPPA and NTDC, which has its own timelines. However, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal has directed the power ministry to expedite the process. Recently, the Chinese power purchasing company visited Gwadar and selected a few sites. We have started the land acquisition process but formalities will take another six months.
Our target is to start the work in July 2017, after which it would take at least two years in commissioning. Meanwhile, the 70MW from Iran has been increased to 100MW. We have asked for 20MW of the additional 30MW, but we still await approval.
There is another 100MW scheme with Gwadar from Iran. The Iranian side has already done their work, the agreement had been signed ages ago, but there were problems due to the Iranian sanctions. Due to sanctions on Iran, Pakistan was having issues in financing this project. There are still some problems with the sanctions, even though they have been softly lifted. If this gets done, we will be getting the power in six months.
BRR: What is the development on the transportation side, particularly road network and airport?
SB: The M-8 and N-85 roads have been completed connecting Gwadar to Quetta. The travel time from Gwadar to Quetta is drastically reduced from 20 hours to only 10 hours. The connection with Eastern alignment will be completed by end of this year connecting Gwadar to Sukkur and Multan via Khuzdar. The direct road connection to Gwadar from Saindak was approved at the recent JCC. There will be two advantages of this: one, Gwadar port will get business, since minerals could be exported from there; and the second advantage is that the whole area will be developed.
Also, if you extend the same road, you'll end up connecting with the Nimroz and Helmand provinces in Afghanistan. From there, there is a circular ring road in Afghanistan which leads to Turkmenistan, 1,400 km away from Gwadar. You won't get a shorter route for the Central Asian countries.
The airport work was delayed. We were expecting that it would start last year, but the $220 million allocation for the airport is a grant from China, and the procedure for grants is different and much more complex in China. It involves their ministry of commerce, which is currently reviewing the designs that we have sent. They are waiting for the approval of State Council, which will take three to four months. We are expecting it to kick off in June and the completion time is around two years.
BRR: How big is the airport and are there any phases to it?
SB: We have designed it in such a way that the latest air craft A380 would be able to land there. Our strategy is to first complete the runway, which takes around six months to a year. This would allow the flights to land, and after that we'll go for the terminal building, which takes up a lot more time. If we start this in June 2017, it will be completed by June 2019, but the runway will be operational by June 2018.
BRR: Will things be done simultaneously or will the infrastructure have to be in place first for the industrial activity to start? The statistics you have been providing for 2020 suggest that industrial activity will be taking place on a larger scale. Do you think other industries will come in and start work?
SB: The work has already been started. The progress was extremely slow in the past 10 years, but in the last three years, we have achieved a lot. I have never seen this pace of work before, whether it's the port or the city. Six to twelve lane- wide roads are being built in the city, the airport road and marine drive are being built, and these are all included in the road network of the master plan.
I would appreciate Ahsan Iqbal and Chief Minister Balochistan for their contribution in the progress. The provincial government, especially the chief secretary has also been of great help. The work has begun on the initial area of the free zone. Display centers are being built and the port authorities are already in an agreement with a few Chinese companies.
There is a Chinese company from the stainless steel sector, which will soon start its operations in Gwadar's free zone. Currently, there is no company for stainless steel here in Pakistan. So they will be manufacturing here and will sell in Pakistan and also export.
Currently the port only gets one to two ships per month, but this number will surely increase by a great amount in a year's time, when other activities start. But I believe that it will still take three to four years for the port to be fully functional.
BRR: While there seems to be some development in Gwadar, there is a huge gap between the hype and the reality. Why is that so?
SB: The gap is there because of various reasons. One of them is the media and the advertisements. GDA has housing societies which were given NOCs in 2003-2004. But there are many others which do not exist at all. We have therefore issued a letter to PEMRA stating that no advertisement regarding Gwadar housing society is to be aired without the approval of the GDA. We have also established a complain cell in the town planning section, so that whoever wants to purchase a land or plot can confirm from us. There is so much hype because people know that the work is being done, and a huge amount of investment is involved. They also realise that CPEC is nothing without Gwadar.
On the other hand, the Planning Commission is in charge of the co-ordination and supervision, which is going well. I believe another reason for this gap is the negative perception being circulated by certain elements regarding Gwadar and CPEC. First they were talking about the western alignment, eastern alignment, and all sorts. But now that the work has been started on both alignments, even the Chief Minister of KPK has acknowledged that his suspicions have been cleared.
We all know that this type of a huge investment has never been seen in Pakistan before. When we take $1 billion from the IMF, it comes with numerous terms and conditions attached. But here we are talking about over $50 billion. Everything takes time.
When CPEC began, people used to wonder if the officials here would be able to handle and maintain the pace or not. Today, there is nothing pending at our side. We have the capacity and the capability, but the procedural formalities do take time.
BRR: Are the land records of GDA automated?
SB: It is my dream for it to be digitised, which does not necessarily mean computerised; it means GIS-based digital system. However, GDA's work is in regulation and planning; the Board of Revenue is in charge of the government land. GDA is launching a project to digitise land record in co-ordination with Board of Revenue.
BRR: Have there been delays in the release of funds?
SB: We are working according to the master plan. We needed Rs25 billion, but by 2013, hardly 18-20 percent was released. There have been delays, but in the last three years, the Planning Commission increased flows that enabled us to expedite the pace of development; we are not facing problems regarding funds this year.
The good thing about GDA is that we have a policy of phased implementation. For example, there is a hospital to be built of 300 beds; we would first complete a section with 50 beds so that at least that could be made functional as soon as possible.
I would like to add that the Pakistan Army, GDA, and the health department are currently operating a hospital comprising of 50 beds. The expansion of this is included in the CPEC plan. We are to add 100 more beds and a medical college and university is also to be built in the future. Similarly, Jinnah Avenue has only two service lanes at the moment, and ten more are to be built. So we work according to the resources that we have.
BRR: What other projects are in the pipeline?
SB: For the development of social sector in Gwadar, GDA has started several basic infrastructural projects that have been either completed or near completion. This includes construction of storm water drainage system, a football stadium in sports complex, 50-beded hospital with residential facilities, fisherman housing scheme, central park, a model school, and Gwadar Institute of Technology. To promote the fishing industry and to facilitate the local population, GDA has started two fish-landing jetties, having a capacity of about 400 motorised boats at Surbandar (to be completed by June 2017) and Pishukan (to be completed by December 2017). Other than that, GDA has allocated a new building to the recently established Gwadar University, where about 150 students are currently enrolled.
Under CPEC, to promote exchange and co-operation in the field of education, health, fisheries, tourism and culture, sister agreements were signed with Karamay, Zhuhai, and Kashghar cities in China. In the last two years, about 20 teachers and 20 doctors from Gwadar visited Karamay for professional training. GDA and Karamay city signed another agreement to send 20 students each year to Karamay for secondary and high school education.