A 300MW coal-fired power plant will be established by the Chinese company at Gwadar while at present 7.8MW captive power plant was made operational to provide electricity to the free zone.While briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reform meeting chaired by Abdul Majeed Khan Khanankhail, Director General Gwadar Port Authority Dostain Jamali said that Gwadar Port has been made operational with weekly arrival of ships, as the first ship visited the port on March 7 and another one on March 14.
He further stated that a Chinese company has completed the feasibility study for the construction of 1,000 meters long new terminal with five additional berths. Gwadar Port is going to become a hub of economic activities and a state-of-the-art One Window Operation is envisaged for development of Gwadar Free Zone to facilitate the investors, added Jamali.
He said that China’s financing for China Overseas Port Holding Company has been approved and some more berths will also be added to the Gwadar Port. Jamali said that development of Gwadar free zones is almost compete with an estimated cost of $160 million and additional investment of $250 million is also in the pipeline from the main investor. Gwadar Expo was held on January 29, 30 2018, he added.
The meeting was also told that unlike other projects Gwadar Port is not a stand alone project and delay of one project will ultimately affect work on Gwadar Port. He said that work on different departments is connected with Gwadar projects.
The Chinese company installed a water treatment plant with the capacity of 200,000 gallons of water per day in Gwadar. The committee was informed that the paper work of Pakistan Railway project Main Line (ML-1) is completed and up-gradation of the ML-1 would be started within 3 months.
DG Railways Mazhar Ali Shah told the meeting that projects will be presented before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council for approval. Main Line from Peshawar to Karachi is an early harvest project in the CPEC, added Shah.
He said that once the project is cleared by the CDWP and ECNEC, financial contracting will be followed with the objective to complete the project with around $8 billion.
