Gwadar port to be operational by next month

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Oct 2007

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's third major port - Gwadar Deep Sea Port - will be fully operational by next month after which the second phase of its construction will be undertaken by the Singapore Port Authority (SPA), says a concerned official. "Hopefully our port will be ready for all operations in October as most of the issues related to it had been sorted out to some major extent," Director General of Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) Ahmad Buksh Lehri told this correspondent yesterday. He said SPA which is the operator of the Gwadar port was  lining resources to start the second phase of the project. "A decision has been taken by the government to allow SPA to undertake the mighty second phase of the Gwadar Port preferably within this year". He said that SPA was currently working out its investment plan for undertaking the second phase of the Gwadar port. Phase-1  has cost $298 million. Ahmad Buksh said that SPA, which is the operator of the port, has been given a lease for a long period of  time to run it efficiently.The government, he said, has handed over 16 acres of land to  SPA to run the port which also included tax free zone in the area. Responding to a question,  Ahmad Buksh said that SPA has successfully overcome its initial problems and that the port was likely to be fully operational from December with three   berths handling the ships coming in. However, to handle big ships  the port requires more berths. He said that port will be ready by  December for ships to bring their cargo at the port.