GWADAR - State Minister for Ports and Shipping Chaudhry Jaffer Iqbal on Monday said a new berth would be constructed at Gwadar port within one year, providing a larger anchoring space to accommodate three additional big ships.
The 900-metre-long berth will offer a vertical front from the Gwadar coastline into Arabian Sea to facilitate the loading and unloading of cargo from the vessels, the State Minister told APP here.
Jaffer said Gwadar port was functional and the process of transhipping and re-stuffing of vessels was already being carried out.
He said work on construction of a 15-kilometre-long road from Zero Point in Gwadar to Coastal Highway was underway, along with laying of railway track side by side.
He said a 12-kilometre-long air strip at the new Gwadar International Airport would be completed in one year, allowing landing of larger aircraft including A-380. The minister said a coal-fired plant would also be set up within a year period which would provide electricity to industrial zone.
Gwadar Port Authority Chairman Dostain Khan Jamaldini said that development in Gwadar was in accordance with the vision of establishing a 'Smart Port City'.
He said Gwadar Expo 2018 was a step towards the port city's commercialization and industrialization.
He expressed satisfaction over the immense response by Chinese and Pakistani companies, adding that 126 stalls by 86 leading companies had been set up at the Expo.
He said since Iran's Chabahar port and Gwadar had been declared as sister ports, an Iranian delegation had also arrived in to attend the mega event along with representatives from several other countries.
He said Gwadar Port Authority was handling the terminal operations and the Free Zone along with China Overseas Ports Holding Company (COPHC), which was outsourced for services under a revenue sharing formula at government to government level.