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Gwadar Port

Gwadar Port is a developing warm-water, deep-sea port situated at Gwadar in Balochistan province of Pakistan at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, about 460 km west of Karachi and approximately 75 km (47 mi) east of Pakistan's border with Iran. The port is located on the eastern bay of a natural hammerhead-shaped peninsula jutting out into the Arabian Sea from the coastline.

The Gwadar port is situated right next to the strategic Strait of Hormuz and its busy oil shipping lanes. The surrounding region is home to around two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. It is also on the shortest route to the oil rich Central Asian states through land-locked Afghanistan.^[1]

Gwadar Port is managed by the Gwadar Port Authority.^[2]

The development work started on March 22, 2002 and its first phase was completed on March 2005. Phase I covered building of three multipurpose berths and related port infrastructure and port handling equipment. In 2007, the government of Pakistan handed over port operations to PSA International for 25 years, and gave it the status of a Tax Free Port for the following 40 years.^[3] During the same year it was inaugurated by then Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

Gwadar Port became operational in 2008 with the first ship to dock bringing 72.000 tonnes of wheat from Canada by the vessel .M.V POS GLORY which was handled by M/S GURAB LINES Shipping Gwadar.^[4]

Gwadar Port is featured on the back of the 5 Pakistani Rupee.

Construction[link]

Gwadar Port is being constructed in two phases with heavy investment from China.

Phase I: Us $ 248 million. Status: 100% Complete

• 3 Multipurpose Berths
• Length of Berths 602m
• 4.5 Km long Approach Channel Dredged to 11.5m-12.5m.
• Turning basin 450m dia.
• One 100m Service Berth.
• Related port infrastructure and port handling equipment & Pilot Boat, Tugs, Survey Vessel etc.

Phase II: US $ 932 million: Work Progressing on building 9 additional berths, which will be:

• 4 Container Berths.
• 1 Bulk Cargo Terminal (to handle 100,000 DWT ships).
• 1 Grain Terminal.
• 1 Ro-Ro Terminal.
• 2 Oil Terminals to handle 200,000 DWT ships.

China has acknowledged that Gwadar’s strategic value is no less than that of the Karakoram Highway, which helped cement the China-Pakistan relationship.^{[citation needed]} Beijing is also interested in turning it into an energy-transport hub by building an oil pipeline from Gwadar into China's Xinjiang region. The planned pipeline will carry crude oil sourced from Arab and African states. Such transport by pipeline will cut freight costs and also help insulate the Chinese imports from interdiction by hostile naval forces in case of any major war.

Chinese funded US $198 million (out of total phase I cost of US $248 million) and also provided 450 engineers on site to finish the project on time.

Commercially, it is expected that the Gwadar Port would generate billions of dollars in revenues and create at least two million jobs.^[5]

Technical and financial feasibility studies commenced by the Government of Pakistan in 1993 but construction could not start until 2002. The Gwadar Port was built on a turnkey basis by China.

Gwadar Port is now being expanded into a deep sea port and naval base with Chinese technical and financial assistance.

Operations[link]

Initially, the chairman of Dubai Ports World, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who met Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf on May 5, 2006, expressed a strong hope for management of facilities at the strategic Gwadar port and development of infrastructure in the southern port city and elsewhere in Pakistan. But a decision was taken not to bid, after India’s National Security Council voiced concerns about DP World’s ventures in India, alongside its plans in Pakistan, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem assured the Indians their pull-out was well considered and India need not have any security concerns. The port will now be in competition with that of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Following the completion of Phase I of Gwadar, Govt. of Pakistan on 1 Feb 2007 signed a 40-year agreement with PSA International for the development and operation of the tax-free port and duty-free trade zone. The PSA International was the highest bidder for the Gwadar port after DP World backed out of the bidding process.

In a highly competitive environment, in order to enable Gwadar to compete with its regional peers, the port fees was kept low by allowing a wide range of tax concessions to the PSA International to cut operational and business costs. These include complete exemption from corporate tax for 20 years, duty-free imports of materials and equipment for construction and operations of the port and a free economic zone; and zero rate of duty for shipping and bunker oil for 40 years”. In addition to these incentives, the provincial government of Baluchistan was also asked to exempt the PSA International from the levy of provincial and district taxes.

According to the agreement, the Gwadar Port Authority, the Government of Pakistan would get a fixed share i.e 9% of the revenue from cargo and maritime services, and 15% of the revenue earned from the free-trade zone. PSA International is expected to invest US$550 million in the next five to ten years on creating the operational facilities. Salients of the agreement are as under:

1. Agreement signed between Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) and Concession Holding Company (CHC) a subsidiary of Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) on 05-02-2007.
2. 40 year lease agreement for operating and managing Gwadar Port.
3. PSA will invest US $550 million during the next 5 years for Port Development. The areas where the concession agreement is to be implemented are Terminal and Cargo operations, marine services and Free Zone development.
4. GPA will receive the following fixed share of revenues: 9% from Cargo operations and Marine services. 15% from Gwadar Free Zone business.
5. No duty would be imposed on the machinery and equipment to be imported for development work in this area and for port operations, for 40 years.
6. CHC (the port operator) will have complete exemption from corporate tax for 20 years.
7. Duty exemption for shipping lines and bunker oil for Gwadar port for 40 years.
8. CHC will have complete exemption from all local and provincial taxes for 20 years.
9. CHC will take over the marketing and operations of the current terminal area which provides 602 metres of berthing and will invest and expand berthing space as demand grows during the concession period up to a total maximum of 14 berths in an area of 4.2 Km.
10. Marine services to be operated by CHC will consist of pilotage, tugging, mooring, vessel traffic control, anchorage management and bunkering.
11. GPA will be responsible for dredging of approach channel and harbour to maintain the required depth. All conservancy, security and firefighting services will be provided by GPA.

In September 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that Gwadar is doing little business as a commercial port. Pakistan has asked China to take over the operation but China has not responded.^[6]

See also[link]

• Karachi Port
• Port Qasim
• Keti Bandar
• List of seaports
• List of deep water ports

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gwadar Port Authority
• Government of Pakistan, Board of Investment, Gwadar

Coordinates: 25°07′35″N 62°19′21″E / 25.12639°N 62.3225°E / 25.12639; 62.3225

Gwadar گوادر
—  City  —
Gwadar
Coordinates: 25°12′N 62°11′E / 25.2°N 62.19°E / 25.2; 62.19
Country	Pakistan
Province	Balochistan
Area
• Total	12,637 km2 (4,879 sq mi)
Population (1998)
• Estimate (2006[1])	53,080
Time zone	PST (UTC+5)
Calling code	086
Number of towns	1
Number of Union councils	5
Website	http://www.gda.gov.pk

Gwadar (Baloch and Urdu: گوادر; Arabic: جوادر‎) is a port city on the Arabian Sea in the south-west of Pakistan. It is the district capital of Gwadar District in Balochistan province as well as its winter capital.

Gwadar is strategically located at the apex of the Arabian Sea and at the mouth of the Gulf of Oman. The city's strategic, warm-water, deep-sea Gwadar Port was completed in 2007.^[2] The port is 14 metres (46 ft) deep and handles the largest cargo ships to Pakistan.^[2] The city is emerging as a trade hub and a transit for Chinese oil and timber imports and transshipments.^[2] The city has also been taking an increasing role in China's String of Pearls.^[2]

Gwadar is one of the few planned cities in Pakistan (others being Faisalabad, Jauharabad, and Islamabad), which have been developed from scratch under an urban master plan. Before development, the town was a fishing village.^[2]

History[link]

Pre-Islamic era[link]

Inhabitation of Gwadar, like most areas of Pakistan, appears to be ancient. The area shows inhabitation as early as the ancient Bronze age people where settlements existed around some of the area's oases. The Baloch people of this area originally referred to themselves as Moka or Maka. It is from this that word Makran, the original name of Balochistan is derived. The region was known to the Bactrians as Godar or Godar-shua (in [Pashto). It was this term that the Greeks Hellenzied to Gedrosia. Gedrosia then became a region of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It is believed to have been conquered by the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great. The capital of the satrapy of Gedrosia was Pura, which is thought to have been located near the modern Bampûr, in Iranian Balochistan. During the homeward march of Alexander the Great, his admiral, Nearchus, led a fleet along the modern-day Makran coast and recorded that the area was dry, mountainous, and inhabited by the "Ichthyophagoi" (or "fish eaters"), an ancient Greek rendering of the ancient Persian phrase "Mahi khoran" (which has itself become the modern word "Makran").^[3] After the collapse of Alexander's empire the area was ruled by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander’s generals. The region then came under indigenous rule around about 303 BCE.

Islamic rule[link]

The region remained on the sidelines of history for a millennium until the Arab-Muslim army of Muhammad bin Qasim captured Gwadar in 711 CE and over the intervening (and nearly equivalent) amount of time the area was contested by various powers, including the Mughals (from the east) and the Safavids (from the west).

Colonialism[link]

The Portuguese captured, sacked and burnt Gwadar in 1581.^[4]

Indigenous rule[link]

This was then followed by almost two centuries of local rule by the various Baloch tribes. The city was visited by Ottoman Admiral Seydi Ali Reis in 1550s and mentioned in his book Mirat ul Memalik (The Mirror of Countries), 1557.^[5] According to Seydi Ali Reis, the inhabitants of Gwadar were Baloch and their chief was Malik Jelaleddin, son of Malik Dinar.

Omani rule[link]

In 1783, the Khan of Kalat granted suzerainty over Gwadar to Taimur Sultan, the defeated ruler of Muscat.^[6] When the sultan subsequently retook Muscat, he was to continue his rule in Gwadar by appointing a wali (or "governor"). This wali was then ordered to subjugate the nearby coastal town of Chah Bahar (in modern-day Iran). The Gwadar fort was built during Omani rule, whilst telegraph lines were later extended into the town courtesy of the British.

Pakistan[link]

On 8 September 1958, Pakistan purchased the Gwadar enclave from Oman for $3 million. Gwadar officially became part of Pakistan on 8 December 1958. At the time, Gwadar was a small and underdeveloped fishing village with a population of a few thousand.

The Pakistani government integrated Gwadar into Balochistan province on 1 July 1977 as the district headquarters of the newly formed Gwadar District.

Gwadar Port

In the 1993, the Government of Pakistan formally conceived the plan to develop Gwadar into a major port city with a deep-sea port and connect it with Pakistan's highway and rail networks. On 22 March 2002, the Government of Pakistan began construction of Gwadar Port, a modern deep-sea port, the first phase of which was completed in December 2005. Gwadar Port became operational in December 2009.

The city underwent major construction from 2002-07.^[2] In 2002, Pakistan's National Highway Authority (NHA) began construction of the 653 km-long Makran Coastal Highway linking Gwadar with Karachi via Pasni and Ormara and onwards with the rest of the National Highways of Pakistan, which was completed in 2004. In 2003, the Gwadar Development Authority was established to oversee the planning and development of Gwadar and Gwadar Industrial Estate Development Authority was established to promote industrial activities in mega port city of Gwadar .^[7] In 2004, Pakistan's NHA began construction of the 820-km long M8 motorway linking Gwadar with Ratodero in Sindh province via Turbat, Hoshab, Awaran and Khuzdar and onwards with the rest of the Motorways of Pakistan. In 2006, the Gwadar Development Authority conceived, developed and adopted a 50-year Master Plan for Gwadar. In 2007, the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan acquired 4,300 acres (17 km²) to construct a new greenfield airport, the New Gwadar International Airport, on 6,000 acres (24 km²), at an estimated cost of Rs. 7.5 billion. China has funded 80% of the initial $248 million construction of the city.^[2]

However China has not announced being requested to operate the port by Pakistan.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Geography[link]

Gwadar is situated on the southwestern Arabian Sea coast of Pakistan in Gwadar District of Balochistan province. Like Ormara further east, Gwader is situated on a natural hammerhead-shaped peninsula forming two almost perfect but naturally curved semicircular bays on either side, namely the Gwadar West Bay and Gwadar East Bay. Gwadar is largely flat barren land with two hills, the Koh-e-Batil (maximum height 449 ft.) at the head of the hammerhead peninsula and Koh-e-Mehdi (maximum height 1,112 ft.) to the east of the city.

Climate[link]

Gwadar is 0–300 meters above sea level and is mainly dry, arid and hot. The oceanic influence keeps the temperature lower in summer and higher in winter as compared to the interior. The mean temperature in the hottest month (June) remains between 31°C and 32°. The mean temperature in the coolest month (January) varies from 18°C to 19°C. The uniformity of temperature is a unique characteristic of the Makran Coastal region. Occasionally, winds moving down the Balochistan plateau bring brief cold spells, otherwise the winter is pleasant. In Gwadar, winters are shorter than summers. Although Gwadar is situated outside the monsoon belt, it still receives light monsoon showers in summer. However, in winter, Western Disturbance can cause heavy rainfall. Annual rainfall is only 100mm (3 inches). In June 2010, Gwadar was lashed by Cyclone Phet with record-breaking rains of 372 mm and winds up to 75 mph.

Administration[link]

Gwadar is the district headquarters of Gwadar District and the tehsil (subdistrict) headquarters of Gwadar Tehsil. Gwadar Tehsil is administratively subdivided into five Union councils, three of which form Gwadar city, these are:^[12]

• Gwadar Northern
• Gwadar Central
• Gwadar Southern

Culture[link]

Gwadar's location and history have given it a unique blend of cultures. The Arabic influence upon Gwadar is strong as a consequence of the Omani era and its close proximity to the Arabian peninsula. The legacy of the Omanis is observed in the local Makrani population who can trace their lineage to Afro-Arabs and Zanj slaves, who have settled in the town during Omani rule. They have an Arab dance and music called Liwa which is also performed in the Arabian Peninsula.

Economy[link]

Fishing boats in Gwadar East Bay with the Koh-e-Mehdi Hills in the background

Gwadar's economy has, in the past, been dependant mostly on fishing. Gwadar's economy is undergoing rapid transformation as a small fishing village is being transformed into a major port city of Pakistan with improved links with the rest of Pakistan. In 1993, the Government of Pakistan commenced a feasibility study for the construction of a deep-sea port at Gwadar. On 22 March 2002, the Government of Pakistan began construction of Gwadar Port, a modern deep-sea port, the first phase of which was completed in December 2005. Gwadar Port became operational in December 2009. The 1400 km Trans-Afghan Gas Pipeline (TAP) from Turkemenistan to Gwadar(Pakistan), a long-dormant project that would pump Turkmen natural gas to markets in South Asia, may finally be poised to begin at a cost of $3 billion.^[13] The Government has announced that a massive defense facility will be constructed in the city in order to guarantee the security of the area. The Government has also announced that a new shipbuilding centre will be built at Gwadar, with an as-yet unspecified international partner.

See also[link]

• Ormara
• Gwadar International Airport
• Gwadar Bay

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gwadar Development Authority
• Gwadar Port
• Provincial Government of Balochistan

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