Gwadar - A Jewel in Crown

Gwadar (Balochi: گوادر Gwadur) is a city on the southwestern Arabian Sea coastline of Pakistan, in Balochistan province. Under development as a free trade port, it is the district headquarters of Gwadar District and, in 2011, was designated the winter capital of Balochistan province. It is situated near to Persian gulf countries, Eastern European countries Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and western Asian countries Iran and Turkey.

Until 1958, Gwadar was an overseas possession of Muscat and Oman. On 8 September 1958 it was annexed by Pakistan, with Oman then agreeing to sell its former enclave to Pakistan for a price of 5.5 billion rupees, with effect from 8 December 1958. The area was not integrated into Balochistan province of Pakistan until 1 July 1977, when it became a full sub-division called the Gwadar District and was designated as the "winter capital" of Balochistan. Most of the money for the purchase from Oman came from donations, with Prince Sultan Mohammad Shah, the reigning Aga Khan, being the greatest contributor, while the remainder was raised by taxation.^[2]Gwadar has a population of approximately 85,000. It is about 700 km from Karachi and 120 km from the Iranian border. Gwadar Port is located at the mouth of thePersian Gulf, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, near the key shipping routes in and out of the Persian Gulf.

Gwadar Port is a strategic warm-water deep-sea port developed jointly by the Government of Pakistan and the Government of China at a cost of USD $248 million and officially opened by the President of Pakistan on 20 March 2007.^[3]), which have been developed from scratch under an urban master plan. Before its development as a port city, the town was a fishing village. A master plan for the development of Gwadar City with land zoning and internal infrastructure networks was approved by the Government of Pakistan in 2003. The Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) is charged with the execution of this master plan. A major part of its current work program is focused on the fast-track construction of roads, other infrastructure and public buildings. The provincial government of Balochistan has started with the development of infrastructure for the industrial parks located east of the city. Related to this rapid development, the population growth rate of Gwadar has accelerated during the past two years. The current population of Gwadar city is estimated at around 85,000 and is expected to reach half a million in about five years.

In 2013, Gwadar Port operations were officially handed over to China ^[4] Under the contract with China, the port will be further developed into a full-scale commercial port, with an initial construction investment of $750 million.^[5] The port is said to be strategically important to China because it will enable China to more safely and reliably import oil. Currently, sixty percent of China’s oil must be transported by ship from the Persian Gulf to the only commercial port in China, Shanghai, a distance of more than 16,000 kilometres. The journey takes two to three months, during which time the ships are vulnerable to pirates, bad weather, political rivals, and other risks. Using Gwadar port instead will reduce the distance these ships must travel and will also enable oil transfers to be made year-round. ^[6]

In February 2013, Iran announced it would set up a $4 billion oil refinery in Gwadar with an estimated capacity of about 400,000 barrels per day. According to the plan, the Iranians will also construct an oil pipeline between its territory and Gwadar to transport crude oil for processing.^[7][8] It has also been announced that, under China’s coastal refinery plan, China will invest $12 billion in multiple projects in Gwadar and other parts of Pakistan, including construction of a refinery which will have a processing capacity of 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day.^{[citation needed]}