The new Gawadar international airport approved at a new 550 percent higher cost by the federal government of Pakistan which is Rs. 51.298 billion as compared to the previous cost which was Rs. 7.675 billion. The executive committee of national economic council took the decision which also forced the Pakistan civil aviation authority to organize an energy plan within three months.
The project was taken into consideration by the CDWP in its meeting held on September 2021. The ministry of planning, developing and special initiatives briefed the ECNEC in this regard. The project was recommended at a total cost of Rs 51 billion including the foreign exchange component of Rs 34 billion.
The financing of the project will be to the tune of Rs16.078 billion from PSDP, Rs 750.00 million from PCAA’s own resources, Rs 643.063 million from Omani Grant (already received and spent) and Rs 33.827 billion (1.520 billion RMB) from Chinese grant. No more funds will be made available through Omani grant for the project.
The recommendations approved by ECNEC for the CDWP for are follows: (i) PCAA will first execute the scope that is essentially required for operations of the airport and an equally balanced scope will be initiated after the above works have been completed ;(ii) keeping into accordance their specific areas of jurisdiction, PCAA and Gwadar Development Authority, the Balochistan government will make sure that the area around the airport has been secured to fulfill the requirements of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Pakistan National Airfield Clearance Policy (NACP) and ;(iii) An energy plan will be developed and shared by the PCAA within 3 months.
