The Gwadar Port ( ) is situated on the Arabian Sea at Gwadar in Balochistan province of Pakistan and is under the administrative control of the Maritime Secretary of Pakistan and operational control of the China Overseas Port Holding Company. The port features prominently in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) plan, and is considered to be a link between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Maritime Silk Road projects. It is about southwest of Turbat, and to the east of Chabahar Port (Sistan and Balochistan Province in Iran).
Gwadar's potential to be a deep water sea port was first noted in 1954, while the city was still under Omani sovereignty. Plans for construction of the port were not realised until 2007, when the port was inaugurated by Pervez 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, around 2000 acre land was leased to a Chinese company for 43 years for the development of Gwadar Special Economy Zone.
Gwadar Port became formally operational on 14 November 2016, when it was inaugurated by Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif; the first convoy was seen off by the then Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif. On 14 January 2020, Pakistan operationalized Gwadar Port for Afghan transit trade. On 31 May 2021, Gwadar Port became fully operational, along with the availability of online booking for the delivery of goods.
Location
Gwadar Port is situated on the shores of the Arabian Sea in the city of Gwadar, located in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The port is located 533 km from Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, and is approximately 120 km from the Iranian border. It is located away from Oman, and near key oil shipping lanes from the Persian Gulf. The greater surrounding region is home to around two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves. It is also the nearest warm-water seaport to the landlocked, but hydrocarbon rich, Central Asian Republics, as well as Afghanistan.
The port is situated on a rocky outcropping in the Arabian sea that forms part of a natural hammerhead-shaped peninsula protruding out from the Pakistani coastline. The peninsula, known as the Gwadar Promontory, consists of rocky outcropping reaching an altitude of 560 feet with a width of 2.5 miles that are connected to the Pakistani shore by a narrow and sandy 12 kilometre long isthmus. The isthmus separates the shallow Padi Zirr bay to the west, from the deep water Demi Zirr harbour in the east.
Background
Pakistan identified Gwadar as a port site as far back as 1954 when Gwadar was still under Omani rule. Pakistan's interest in Gwadar started when, in 1954, it engaged the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct a survey of its coastline. The USGS deputed the surveyor, Worth Condrick, for the survey, who identified Gwadar as a suitable site for a seaport. After four years of negotiations, Pakistan purchased the Gwadar enclave from Oman for on 8 September 1958 (equivalent to in ) and Gwadar officially became part of Pakistan on 8 December 1958, after 200 years of Omani rule.
A small wharf at Gwadar was completed in 1992, and formal proposals for a deep sea port at Gwadar were unveiled a year later in 1993. The federal government approved the construction of the port in December 1995 but the project could not get started because of shortage of funds. In 1997, a government-appointed task force identified Gwadar as one of the focus area of development, but the project did not launch due to economic sanctions imposed against Pakistan following its nuclear tests in May 1998. Construction on Phase 1 of the project began in 2002 after the agreement for its construction was signed during the state visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji in 2001. After completion of Phase 1 in 2007, the first commercial cargo vessel to dock at the port was the "Pos Glory," with 70,000 Metric Tonnes of Wheat on 15 March 2008.