President Pervez Musharraf will inaugurate the new deep sea port at Gwadar, which has been built with Chinese help, between March 22 and 24 this year.
Disclosing this here today, federal Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Khan Ghauri said the port would be operated by Singapore's PSA International, and he hoped it would emerge as as a major energy and container transport hub with Central Asia.
Ghauri said a formal agreement with PSA International, owned by the Singapore Government investment holding Temasek, for handling port operations, will be signed on Tuesday.
In December, a consortium led by PSA won the contract to operate the deep-sea port on the Arabian Sea, located about 450 km west of Karachi and about 70 km east of Pakistan's border with Iran.
Under the agreement, PSA will run the port for 40 years, during which time it will be exempted from corporate tax. No duty will be imposed on any equipment and machinery imported to develop the port during this period. The PSA has plans of investing three billion dollars in the project, of which 550 million dollars would be invested in the first five years. Pakistan's AKD Group is a part of the Singaporean consortium, reports The News.
Gwadar is located on the southwestern coast of Pakistan, close to the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf , through which more than 13 million bbl/d of oil passes. It is strategically located between three increasingly important regions of the world: the oil-rich Middle East, heavily populated South Asia and the economically emerging and resource-rich Central Asia.The Gwadar Port is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue and create two million jobs.
Pakistan started feasibility studies for the development of a major deepwater seaport at Gwadar. The port project commenced on March 22, 2002, and its first phase was completed in December 2005.
The construction of the port has spurred other major infrastructure projects in the area. This includes the 700 km Makran Coastal Highway which is now complete. The road links Karachi with several ports along the coast including Ormara, Pasni, Gwadar and will be extended to the Iranian border in the future. The highway has reduced travel time to Karachi from 48 hours to only 7 hours. Other road projects include the Gwadar-Quetta-Chaman road which is due for completion in 2006 and a roadlink to the town of Khuzdar in eastern Balochistan. There are also plans for a terminal for passenger ships.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan has earmarked 3000 acres (12 km) of land for Gwadar International Airport which will be built 26 km away to the northeast of the existing airport towards Pasni and is likely to cost between $200-250 million.
The new airport will be given international status and operate under the open sky policy. In the meantime there are plans to improve facilities at the existing airport. The Railway Ministry has announced that Gwadar will be connected to the Pakistan Railways network at a cost of 1.25 billion dollars.