The Chinese petroleum industry has indicated an interest in shifting its excess capacity to Gwadar, bringing in estimated investment of $13 billion, a senior government official told Daily Times on Wednesday.

The government will nominate a body for operating the Gwadar Deep Sea Port this week, an official source disclosed. Three international companies – the Dubai Port World, Hutchision Port Holding of Hong Kong and PSA International, Singapore – are competing for the operating contract.

The Gwadar Port should be connected with the rest of the country through rail link. This scheme should be implemented prior to the road links in and around the new port city whose first phase is expected to be inaugurated in December, says a study.

The Senate was informed on Wednesday that Gwadar Port would be operational by Dec 30, 2006. During the question hour, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Kamil Ali Agha said that 90 per cent work on the first phase of the port had been completed.

Located at the entrance of the Gulf and about 650-km from Karachi, Gwadar has immense Geo-strategic significance on many accounts. The continued unstable regional environment in the Gulf in particular as a result of the Iran/Iraq war, the Gulf war and the emergence of the new Central Asian States has added to this importance.

The MCC Resources Development Limited (MRDL), a subsidiary of the China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), has shelved a plan to set up a refinery at Saindak to separate gold from blister copper.

The prices of property in Gwadar that had been depressed for quite sometime because of slow progress of development works in the city and at the port have fallen further following the death of Nawab Akber Khan Bugti, as concerns over the future of the projects mounted.

Gwadar Airport project would be completed by August 2010 at a cost of Rs 7,885 million. In a written reply to question raised by Muhammad Ismail Buledi in the Senate, he said after the completion of planning and designing process the physical execution of Gwadar Airport project is scheduled to start in March this year.[…]

Pakistan and Iran have agreed to a proposal relating to passenger and commercial cargo carriage by private shipping lines between Iranian port of Chabahar and Pakistani port Gwadar, a senior government official told the Daily Times on Thursday.

RAWALPINDI: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for developing the Golden Palms Residential Estate Gwadar was signed on Tuesday between the Hashoo Group and IBEX Construction (Private) Limited, a subsidiary of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO).