Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The most modern and largest $246m New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA), built at an area of 4,300 acres, will be operational by September 2023 to welcome local and international flights at the port city.

According to an official source, the development of the airport was at different stages as the passenger terminal building of the project would be completed by June 2023; work related to air traffic control by March 2023, while the overall construction of the airport would be finished before September 2023.

The New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA) was being managed and operated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which was owned by a tripartite venture between Pakistan, Oman, and China that would handle domestic and international operations.

The airport development is a part of the gigantic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which is a cornerstone of China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative.

The biggest in Pakistan, the NGIA would also become the nation’s second airport capable of handling A380 aircraft upon its commissioning in 2022.

It will stimulate the development of the Gwadar peninsula and boost trade between Pakistan and China, hence transforming the geopolitical status of the region into the geo-economic hub of investment and trade opportunities.

The airport would be operated and developed as per the open sky policy under the guidance of the CAA.

The New Gwadar International Airport project was initiated as an early harvest high-priority project of the CPEC program in 2014.

The Executive Committee approved the project of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in January 2015 which was being funded through a grant agreement signed between China and Pakistan in May 2017.

The Airport development also included soil testing on the project site that was started in January 2018 and also involved drilling of 300 boreholes at various locations.

The groundbreaking of the airport was held in March 2019.