‘New berth at Gwadar Port to be built in a year’

GWADAR: A new berth would be constructed at the Gwadar Port within a year, providing a larger anchoring space to accommodate three additional big ships, a government official said on Monday.

The 900-metre-long berth will offer a vertical front from the Gwadar coastline into the Arabian Sea to facilitate the loading and unloading of cargoes from the vessels, Minister of State for Ports and Shipping Chaudhry Jaffer Iqbal told APP.

He said Gwadar Port is functional and the process of transshipping and re-stuffing of vessels was already being carried out. Work on the construction of a 15km long road from Zero Point in Gwadar to coastal highway is underway, along with the laying of railway track side by side, he said. Iqbal said that a 1200 metre long air strip at the new Gwadar International Airport would be completed in a year, allowing landing of larger aircraft, including A-380.

The state minister said a coal-fired plant would also be set up within a year, which would provide electricity to the industrial zone.

Gwadar Port Authority Chairman Dostain Khan Jamaldini told APP that the development in Gwadar is in accordance with the vision of establishing a “Smart Port City”.

Gwadar Expo 2018 is a step towards the port city’s commercialisation and industrialization, he added. He expressed satisfaction over the immense response by Chinese and Pakistani companies, adding that 126 stalls by 86 leading companies had been set up at the expo. Since Iran’s Chabahar Port and Gwadar had been declared as sister ports, an Iranian delegation had also arrived to attend the mega event along with representatives from several other countries, he said.

The Gwadar Port Authority is handling the terminal operations and the free zone along with China Overseas Ports Holding Company (COPHC), which was outsourced for services under a revenue sharing formula at the government-to-government level, the state minister added.