Daily Times

QUETTA: Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) Chairman Dostain Khan Jamaldini Friday said that work on construction of an industrial free zone in Gwadar was underway and the port city alone would create about 40,000 jobs in future.

The construction of the 10 square kilometres industrial zone is underway with a total outlay of $2 billion, where Chinese, Middle East, European and Pakistani investors have planned to establish 300 factories, said Jamaldini

“The Chinese firm is spending $2 billion for construction of roads, provision of electricity, gas and water in the industrial zone which will be completed within stipulated time,” he said, adding work on road network, railway track and communication infrastructure from Chinese province Xinjiang to Gwadar was in full swing.

Pakistan, he said, had started work on different sections of CPEC in shape of roads including Skardu-Hawalian, Multan-Sukkur, Gwadar-Hoshab, Gwadar-Rato Dero, Mughal Kot-Zhob and others

Under the CPEC, the chairman said a power plant of 300MW is being established in Gwadar which run simultaneously on coal, diesel and gas. “A LNG plant is also being established in Gwadar to meet energy requirement of new industrial units to be set up in the port city,” he said.

Jamaldini said that the CPEC infrastructure of road network would be completed by 2018 while other projects would continue till 2030.

“It is flagship project of One Road, One Belt initiative by Chinese leadership to be implemented by 2030,” he said.

He said that technical and vocational training institutes were being established in Gwadar, Quetta, Khuzdar and other cities of Balochistan to provide training to youth in industrial parks being established in Balochistan as part of the CPEC.

He said work on 19km long East Bay Expressway was underway which would connect Gwadar International Airport to Gwadar Deep Sea Port Early harvest project is also being executed in Gwadar with an estimated cost of Rs 14 billion, he added.