2,000 acres leased to China for Gwadar Economic Zone

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has leased out over 2,000 acres of land to China for 43 years mainly belonging to the Pakistan Navy and the provincial government in order to construct the first Free Economic Zone (FEZ) at Gwadar.
Under the much-hyped China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), both Beijing and Islamabad decided to utilise $786 million for different important physical projects related to Gwadar, including the construction of airport at an estimated cost of $230 million.
In addition, the Gwadar Coal Power Project will be constructed at an estimated cost of $360 million in order to generate 300MW electricity. So, Gwadar will have an overall investment of $1 billion under the CPEC.
The contract for the construction of Gwadar airport is expected to be awarded by September 15, 2015 and the financial agreement is expected to be finalised by October this year.
The mobilisation/ commencement of work on the airport will begin by November this year. It is expected that the Gwadar airport will be completed by the fiscal year 2017-18.
“Another 500 acres of land will be leased out to China very soon to complete their requirement for the construction of the first SEZ at Gwadar, so the total land of 2,500 acres will be provided to their companies,” top economic officials of the Nawaz government said here on Wednesday.
When asked last week, Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal and Federal Secretary Hassan Nawaz Tarar had both confirmed that Pakistan had leased out over 2,000 acres of land to Chinese companies while another 500 acres of land would be provided soon. The FEZs at Gwadar will be completed in the first phase.
According to official documents available with The News, Pakistan and China would be utilising $46.4 billion under the CPEC initiative out of which $786 million would be utilised for different development projects at Gwadar. For the construction of infrastructure for the Free Economic Zone and Economic Processing Zones port related industries will cost $35 million.
The Eastbay Expressway project for Gwadar would cost $140 million under the CPEC initiative. The construction of breakwaters will cost $130 million.
The dredging of berthing areas and channels will cost $27 million under the CPEC over the next couple of years.
Necessary facilities of fresh water treatment plant at Gwadar will cost $114 million under the CPEC over the next few years.
One state-of-the-art hospital will be constructed at Gwadar at an estimated cost of $100 million. Both the sides also decided to establish a technical and vocational institute at Gwadar at an estimated cost of $10 million.