GWADAR - The government will develop a mega oil city at Gwadar under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and 80,000 acres of land is being acquired for the purpose.
“We have forwarded a proposal for the construction of mega oil city at Gwadar to the Petroleum Division and as soon [as] we get [the] green light, we will embark upon land acquisition,” Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) Director-General Dr Sajjad H Baloch told visiting Islamabad-based journalists on Sunday.
He said that the oil city would be used for dumping oil for its onward transportation to China.
Usually it takes 40 days for a vessel to transport oil to Shanghai but via Pakistan it will reach China within seven day, Dr Baloch said. He said that 80,000 acres of land would be acquired for the mega oil city and the estimated cost of land acquisition was Rs10 billion. A refinery, petrochemical industries and storage units will be established in the oil city, he added.
The infrastructure for the oil city will be provided by the Government of Pakistan but it will be developed by private investors, Dr Baloch said.
Besides, he said that the total area of Gwadar Model City was 290,000 acres, which included 160,000 acres of residential area, while the remaining was for industrial purposes.
A Chinese company is working on the Model City Plan and it will be ready by August 14, 2018, Dr Baloch said.
Responding to questions regarding availability of sweet water in Gwadar, Dr Baloch said that the current water requirement for Gwadar stood at six million gallons per day and currently there was no direct water supply taking place to the area.
However, he said that two MGD water was being supplied from two small dams through tankers.
“We have a deficit of four million gallons per day in the water supply to the area,” Dr Baloch added.
He said that by 2020 the water requirement of Gwadar would be 12 million gallons per day for which additional arrangements were being made to get 10 million gallons of water.
Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) with the help of the federal government and the Government of Balochistan is laying a pipeline from two dams to ensure supply of water to Gwadar, Dr Baloch said.
The total capacity of these dams is five MGD and it is hoped that the supply will start by March 2018.
“But let me make it clear that the water supply depends upon the rains, if we get enough rain than Gwadar will get the water,” the GDA director general maintained.
Talking about the projects other than the CPEC being implemented in Gwadar, he said that the federal government was funding the construction of roads.
“Currently we are working on 324 kilometres of road and 200 kilometres of them are already completed,” the director general added. Two fish harbours are also being funded by the federal government, Dr Baloch said.
A Government Technical Institute will also be established with the help of federal funding. Another project of underground electricity is also being implemented with the help of the federal PSDP and work on 35 kilometres of transmission line has already been completed, he said.
Regarding the real estate, Dr Baloch said that there were three government housing scheme at Gwadar, while there were 100 private schemes. Out of the 100 private schemes 75 have been suspended for being inactive for a long time, he added.
Replying to a query regarding the electricity demand and supply in the port city, Dr Baloch said that the current demand of Gwadar was 25-30 MW and they were getting 14 MW from the national grid.
Talking about the future power supply, he said that “we are working for the generation of 45 MW on an interim basis, which also includes the plan to buy our own generator.”
Besides, 300 MW coal plant is also part of the plan. A MoU was signed with Iran for the supply of 100 MW of electricity and the Iranian government has completed 80 per cent of the work on the project, the GDA director general said.
