Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal has directed for expediting work on fresh water supply and power projects in Gwadar under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), besides issuing orders for making immediate alternate arrangements to address the problems of water and power in the port city on war footing.
The minister expressed these views while presiding over a high-level meeting on Gwadar projects here at Planning Commission on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by Secretary Planning Shoaib Ahmad Saddiqui, Chief Secretary Balochistan Aurangzeb Haque, and senior officials from line ministries, government of Balochistan and Chinese Embassy.
The participants further discussed in detail the issues of water and power supply in Gwadar city. The officials of Gwadar Development Authority and Ministry of Energy briefed the participants about the Gwadar Master City Plan, power projects and water supply issues of Gwadar.
The minister said the people of Gwadar were at the top priority regarding CPEC projects and instructed for immediate resolution of water and power supply issues in the port city. He said those projects would meet the power and water demands of local community and the modern expanding port city of Gwadar.
Currently, the CPEC projects of necessary facilities of fresh water treatment, water supply and distribution at the cost of US $130 million and 300MW coal-based power project at the cost of US $600 million are under implementation in Gwadar. These projects will meet the power and water demands of local community.
Gwadar Smart Port City Master Plan, a one year project at the cost of US $4 million (Chinese Grant), was launched in August 2017. It envisages preparation of a detailed master plan including city planning and urban design, city transportation planning and design, energy, technology and connectivity infrastructure and policies, economic planning of the port city, community participation and empowerment, disaster risk management and integrated business development plan for city and port, etc.
Ahsan Iqbal also directed that mushroom growth of private sector residential societies be discouraged prior to completion of Gwadar City Master Plan. He said the plan for Gwadar city must be a comprehensive document, including all aspects of a modern port city in line with requirements of the CPEC. He instructed that the plan should ensure provision of an integrated rail, road and air transport infrastructure system. He highlighted that the Gwadar Master City Plan must cover the present and future maritime trends and assessment of other regional ports.
"To make Gwadar a competitive port, the plan should come up with solutions," the minister remarked while commenting on the briefing by the GDA. He also instructed to induct a senior and qualified expert on regional and urban planning in the review committee made for this project. The minister maintained that people of Gwadar were the top priority, and instructed that maximum benefits be offered to the local community under the CPEC. He directed that besides expediting CPEC projects of Water and Power Plant, alternate arrangements should be made to address the problem on war footing.
Meanwhile, Ahsan Iqbal said that over Rs 6.6 billion had been saved through rationalization of projects during the last four years. He said this on the inauguration of 'Planning Commission-1 Automation System' here on Tuesday. Iqbal said in the past, the storage and processing of the projects was difficult and a lot of stationery was used for printing several copies of the projects. He said the PC-I Automation System would help reduce the cost of stationery use.