Gwadar is being planned to be the first Smart Port City in Pakistan on the southwestern Arabian Sea coastline, in the Balochistan province. It is about 630 Km from Karachi and 73 Km from the Iranian border at Gabd. Gwadar Port is located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, near the key shipping routes in and out of the Persian Gulf.
In 1993, the Government of Pakistan formally conceived the plan to develop Gwadar into a major port city with a modern deep-seaport and to connect it with Country's highway and rail networks. Gwadar Port is a warm-water, deep-sea port developed, under a Phase-I Program during 2000-6 jointly by the Governments of Pakistan and China at a cost of US$288 million. On 22 March 2002, the construction of Gwadar Port began, completed in 2006 and formally inaugurated on 20 March 2007.
The Gwadar Port Master Plan, prepared by world-renowned port master planning consultants, describes the means by which Gwadar Port and its surrounding areas to be incrementally improved. It incorporates short-term (3-5 years), mid-term (15 years), and a long-term (50 years) plans. The short-term plan relates to Phase II of Gwadar Port's development, which is already underway.
At present, Gwadar Port is fully functional with three multipurpose berths, each 200 metres in length dredged to 14.5 metres in depth, with a bulk carrier capacity of 50,000 DWT and 50,000 DWT container vessels, and a Roll-off Roll-on facility.
Under short-term plan 5 more berths will be added extending the present terminal upto 1.500 KM with depth of 16.5-19.5 meters. By 2055, it is anticipated that Gwadar Port will be the largest port of its kind in the World, with a 50-kilometre sea front and 10,000 hectares of utilized property. This includes the port facilities and the associated infrastructure including port-related industrial/economic zones.
The planned port economic zones are its Free Zone (which is already under execution and its pilot phase ready for inauguration), Petro-chemical Zone, Mineral-related Industrial Zone, and Chemical-related Industrial Zone. Since its completion, the Gwadar Deep Water Port could not be operationalized optimally by the earlier port operator viz.
Port of Singapore Authority (PSA Gwadar Int'l Pte Ltd), which was selected in 2007 on the basis of international competitive bidding as port operator under a Concession Agreement. However, the port operator was unsuccessful in bringing business to the port and further expansion of its infrastructure.
In May 2013, the port's Concessional Rights were transferred to the new operator viz. M/s China Overseas Ports Holding Company Ltd (COPHC). The new operator has completed "recovery" of existing available infrastructure and equipment on the port. COPHCL submitted 'Operational Plan' of the port in consultation with Gwadar Port Authority (GPA), which suggests a framework for the Port Business Plans as per the Concession Agreement. Feasibility of the First Port Expansion is near to completion for construction of 5 additional berths.
As earlier stated that the construction of initial phase of Gwadar Port was carried out during 2002-06 and inaugurated on 20 March 2007, however, during the period from 2007-13 the port could not attend its targeted throughput as envisioned in Gwadar Port Master Plan (2006).
Since 2008, Gwadar Port has handled more than 7.000 million metric tons of dry bulk cargo (imported wheat and urea only) and more than 1,000 TEUs containerized cargo from more than 200 ships. COPHCL is working on increasing the number of ships calling at the port with start of container business from Gwadar Port in 2015, initially limited export of local fish and project cargo through COSCO & Sino-Trans vessels. More ship-liners are starting their regular services during 2018.
In the mean time, the governments of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of China have agreed on a long-term bilateral trade and economic corridor programme, namely, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Given this long-term CPEC programme, the Gwadar Port has become strategically important for both Pakistan and China because it will bring closer the Middle Eastern ports to China through Karakoram Highway (KKH) linking Gwadar with Kashgar and will boost bilateral and multilateral transit and trade.
The transfer of Concession Rights to COPHCL and the government-to-government CPEC agreements have created bright prospects for operationalization of Gwadar Port and harnessing the benefits of regional trade connectivity through this naturally deep-sea port by Pakistan, China, Central Asian Republics and Afghanistan.
During 2013-14 a number of decisions were taken and plans were approved, which are in process of being executed. Foremost is the connectivity of the port with road and rail networks because these are very basic requirements for successful operation of any port. Two major road links viz., M-8 (Gwadar-Hoshab) and N-85 (Hoshab-Surab) connecting Gwadar with Quetta (Western Route) have been constructed by National Highway Authority and are now open for road traffic. Work on another 110Km highway ie, N-30 from Besima to Khuzdar is in progress, which will connect N-85 with Khuzdar-Ratodero-Shahdad Kot Highway (Central Route).
Another branch of Western Route connecting Gwadar with mineral rich areas of Balochistan province (Gwadar-Panjgoor-Mashkhail-Nokundi Road) is in feasibility study stage. Another breakthrough was the export of two containerized shipments destined for Africa and Middle East through Gwadar Port. The shipments reached to Gwadar from Kashgar by road, witnessing the start of CPEC Kashgar-Gwadar land connectivity. The Prime Minister of Pakistan inaugurated the event in an impressive ceremony on November 13, 2016.
The Gwadar Port is not only going to change the destiny of the country and its people in terms of massive infrastructure and communication uplift in the very near future but is the hallmark of decades old and cherished bond of friendship between the governments and the people of Pakistan and China that will continue for a long time to come.
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