Gwadar port

                         GWADAR port
  •  Gwadar Port is a warm-water, deep-sea port situated on the Arabian sea at gwadar in Balochistan province of Pakistan. Gwadar is near the border with Iran, and is located to the east of the Persian Gulf and opposite Oman.The port features prominently in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) plan, and is considered to be a crucial link between the ambitious One Belt, One Road and Maritime Silk Road projects.

  • Gwadar and its surrounding region were overseas possessions of the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman from 1783 until Pakistan purchased the territory September 8, 1958. Pakistan assumed control of the territory on December 8, 1958, and the territory was later integrated into Balochistan province on July 1, 1977, as Gwadar District.


  • Plans for construction of the port were not realised until 2007, when the port was inaugurated by Parvez Musharraf after four years of construction, at a cost of $248 million.


  • In 2015, it was announced that the city and port would be further developed under CPEC at a cost of $1.62 billion,with the aim of linking northern Pakistan and western China to the deep water seaport.The port will also be the site of a floating liquefied natural gas facility that will be built as part of the larger $2.5 billion Gwadar-Nawabshah segment of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline project.Construction began in June 2016 on the Gwadar Special Economic Zone, which is being built on 2,292 acre site adjacent to Gwadar's port.In late 2015, the port was officially leased to China for 43 years, until 2059.


  • Gwadar port became fully operational on 14 November 2016 and was inaugurated by Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif & Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff GenRaheel Sharif.

  • Gwadar and its surrounding region were overseas possessions of the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman from 1783 until Pakistan purchased the territory September 8, 1958. Pakistan assumed control of the territory on December 8, 1958, and the territory was later integrated into Balochistan province on July 1, 1977, as Gwadar District.


  • Plans for construction of the port were not realised until 2007, when the port was inaugurated by Parvez Musharraf after four years of construction, at a cost of $248 million.


  • In 2015, it was announced that the city and port would be further developed under CPEC at a cost of $1.62 billion,with the aim of linking northern Pakistan and western China to the deep water seaport.The port will also be the site of a floating liquefied natural gas facility that will be built as part of the larger $2.5 billion Gwadar-Nawabshah segment of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline project.Construction began in June 2016 on the Gwadar Special Economic Zone, which is being built on 2,292 acre site adjacent to Gwadar's port.In late 2015, the port was officially leased to China for 43 years, until 2059.


  • Gwadar port became fully operational on 14 November 2016 and was inaugurated by Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif & Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff GenRaheel Sharif.


                                  
                     Pak_china (CPEC)



  • In April 2015, Pakistan and China announced their intention to develop the $46 billionChina–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),which in turn forms part of China's ambitiousOne Belt, One Road.Gwadar features heavily in CPEC, and is also envisaged to be the link between the One Belt, One Road and Maritime Silk Road project.$1.153 billion worth of infrastructure projects will be invested into the city as part of CPEC,with the aim of linking northern Pakistan and western China to the deep water seaport.The city will also be the site of a floating liquefied natural gasfacility that will be built as part of the larger $2.5 billion Gwadar-Nawabshah segment of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline project.In addition to investments directly under the aegis of CPEC in Gwadar city, the China Overseas Port Holding Company in June 2016 began construction on the $2 billionGwadar Special Economic Zone,which is being modelled on the lines of the Special Economic Zones of China.In September 2016 the Gwadar Development Authority published a request for tenders for the preparation of expropriation and resettlement of Old Town Gwadar.



  • China has a great strategic interest in Gwadar. In 2013, the state-owned China Overseas Port Holdings Limited acquired Gwadar Port.The port is strategically important for China as sixty percent of China's oil comes from the Persian Gulf by ships traveling over 16,000 kilometres in two to three months, confronting pirates, bad weather, political rivals, and other risks up to its only commercial port, Shanghai. Gwadar will reduce the distance to a mere 5000 kilometres and also serve round the year.


  •  China is heavily dependent on Persian Gulf oil which passes through the Strait of Malacca all the way through the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Once the oil reaches China's east coast ports, it is transported thousands of miles inland to western China. The Gwadar port-Karakoram Highway (KKH) route is safer, cheaper and shorter than transporting the oil by ocean tanke

                   Khan of kalat and GWADAR

  • In 1783, the Khan of Kalat Mir Noori Naseer Khan Baloch granted suzerainty over Gwadar to Taimur Sultan, the defeated ruler ofMuscat.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 (now in Iran). The Gwadar fort was built during Omanirule, whilst telegraph lines were later extended into the town courtesy of the British. In the middle of the 18th century, Mir Noori Naseer Khan Baloch captured Gwadar and its surrounding areas after defeating the Gichki Baloch tribe and included it in the Kalat Khanate. However, realizing that maintaining control of the area will be difficult without the support of the Gichkis, Mir Nasir entered into an agreement with the local Gichki Chief, which allowed the Gichkis to maintain administrative control of the area, in return for furnishing half the collected revenues to Kalat, this arrangement continued till 1783. When Saiad Sultan fell out with his brother, the ruler of Muscat, and asked for help, Mir Noori Naseer Khan handed over Gwadar, as part of his share of revenues, to Saiad Sultan for his maintenance with the understanding that the area be returned to Kalat, when Saiad Sultan acquires the throne. Saiad Sultan ascended to the throne of Muscat in 1797 but never returned Gwadar enclave to Kalat. The ensuing struggle between the heirs of the Sultan and Khan of Kalat for possession of Gwadar, allowed the British to intervene. The British after extracting concessions from the Sultan for the use of the area facilitated Muscat to retain Gwadar. Later on, the British claimed that the area was granted to the Sultan by Mir Nasir, however, local accounts and the declassified documents of that time challenge this claim.From 1863 to 1879 Gwadar was the headquarters of a British Assistant Political Agent. Gwadar was a fortnightly port of call for the British India Steamship Navigation Company’s 
       
                         Administration
  • Gwadar is the district headquarters of Gwadar District and the tehsil (subdistrict) headquarters of Gwadar Tehsil, which is administratively subdivided into five Union councils. Three of these councils, the northern, central, and southern councils, form Gwadar city.

                   Strategic importance




  • Gwadar is strategically located on the western end of Baluchistan coast on the opposite end of the Gulf of Oman which is an important route for oil tankers bound for Japan and western countries out of Gulf. Since outflow of goods from western China and Central Asia reaching Gwadar will pass through this overland trade route, Pakistan could earn millions of dollars a year in terms of port and cargo handling charges and also as freight charges for import cargoes and export goods.  

  • According to Arthur D. Little (Malaysia), the main consultant firm of the Gwadar development phases, low-cost land and labour are available, there is proximity to oil and gas resources and Gulf countries, there are some agricultural and mineral resources, while there could be tax-free status for investments and trade. The Gwadar Port is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenues and create at least two million jobs.



  • Gwadar has the potential to acquire the status of a center piece as a gate to Strait of Hurmoz; it can compete with the United Arab Emirates ports by improving the exiting links to Caspian Region, and thus providing a better trade for route to land locked Caspian Region. Gwadar has the potential to be developed into a full-fledged regional hub and a trans-shipment port in the future.  In case Strait of Malacca is blocked by U.S Gwadar can serve as an alternate route for Chinese trade in the Indian Ocean and toWestern Asia. In military and strategic terms, Gwadar can help China to monitor the sea-lanes from the Persian Gulf as about 60% of Chinese energy requirements come from the Persian Gulf and transit along this sea-lane. Gwadar is also further away from the reach of the Indian Navy than Karachi, which was attacked twice during in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The port of Gwadar Port can provide China a Listening Post to Observe the Indian naval activities around the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Aden. Central Asia and South Asia, encompassing the Caspian Region, Central Asian republics, Afghanistan and Iran, and the energy-rich ‘lake’ called the Caspian Sea, is a significant region because of its huge monetary prospective and geographically vital positioning, which has formed the region as a centre piece in the international arena. Iran has also declared support for the development of Gwadar and its port. 

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