ISLAMABAD – With the first phase of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) nears completion with the Road and Energy projects, Pakistan hasdecided to take the CPEC project towards the next step.
Pakistan has decided to build a mega oil city at Gwadar undermulti-billion dollars project, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), fortransportation of imported oil to China.
The proposed city, which will be constructed on 80,000 acres, will helpstore the oil imported from Gulf. The project will also reduce the distanceto China and it will take seven days to reach China border from Gwadar asthe import through western China took around 40 days.
Dr. Sajjad H Baloch, director general, Gwadar Development Authority (GDA),talking to journalists last week during their visit said that PC-1 for theproject has been sent to the Ministry of Petroleum to acquire the land withthe estimated cost of Rs10 billion. The Planning Commission had arrangedthe visit.
Baloch said that a refinery, petrochemical industries, and storage will beconstructed in the city, adding that additional cost for establishment ofsuch facilities will get with the help of investments.
He informed that Gwadar Model City covers an area of 290,000 acres,including 130,000 for industrial purpose and 160,000 for the residentialarea. He added that a Chinese company was working on the Model City Planthat will be completed by August 14 this year.
To another query regarding different measures for overcoming watershortages at Gwadar, he said that the current water requirement stood atsix million gallons per day and there is no direct water supply takingplace to the area. Two MGD water is being supplied from two water smalldams through tankers and nearest distance is almost 70 kilometres.
Replying to a question, he said that Gwadar was facing a deficit of fourmillion gallons per day in water supply, adding that there is not directwater supply taking place.
He explained that two million gallons water is being supplied to the areafrom two small dams through tankers, while the total demand is six milliongallons per day.
He said that the requirement will grow over time to 12 million gallons by2020, adding that additional measures were being taken to meet the demand.
The journalists’ delegation also visited the site of the proposed newairport at Gwadar. Chinese official Jianxin Liao told the design for theairport will be finalized after soil investigation, which is underway. Thedesign will be completed by April after which the cost will be estimated.It will be the biggest airport in Pakistan.
He informed that 4,300 land has been acquired, adding that the airport willhave the capacity of handling one million passengers on annual basis.