Gwadar deep-sea port foundation stone laid on 22 March 2002

Pages from history: This piece has been compiled from available official and press sources. We do not have a scanned copy of the 23 March 2002 issue of Roznama Atemad.

Friday, 22 March 2002. A large tent has been pitched at Gwadar on the Makran coast. Construction of the deep-sea port is formally getting under way. This is the same Gwadar that Pakistan received from Oman in 1958 (we told that story on the page for 8 September 1958).

Fifty years of waiting

According to a detailed Dawn article of 2008, the idea of a port here emerged in 1954, when Worth Condrick, an expert surveying the Balochistan coast for the United States, recommended it. Between 1988 and 1992 a small port was built. The writer says it cost more than Rs1.62 billion, but no significant ship called there.

The same article says China offered financial and technical help in May 1999, and in October 2001 Chinese engineers prepared the port’s master plan. The foundation stone was to be laid by the end of 2001, but the ceremony was postponed.

The Beijing agreement

Matters moved quickly in the first weeks of March 2002. According to a report by the state news agency published in Dawn on 11 March, China and Pakistan had completed the feasibility of the design and technical outline of the first phase, and a delegation led by Communications Secretary Iftikhar Rashid was going to Beijing to finalise the agreement. The report put the cost of the first phase at about $250 million, with Pakistan’s share at 20 per cent.

According to Dawn of 16 March, the two countries signed a comprehensive agreement in Beijing on 15 March settling the technical details of the first phase. The report put the cost at $248 million, of which $198 million was to be paid to the Chinese government. The first phase included three berths and an approach channel, and the work was to be completed in three years. The construction contract went to the Chinese state-owned China Harbour Engineering Company.

What happened next

• 17 October 2002: According to the Gwadar Port Authority’s website, the authority was established under an ordinance of this date.
• 2004 to 2006: According to Dawn (2008), the completion date kept slipping, from March 2005 to September 2005 and then to June 2006, and the cost rose from $248 million to $298 million. According to Dawn (November 2006), China gave $200 million in soft loans and grants for the first phase, which built three multipurpose berths with a total length of 602 metres.
• 20 March 2007: The first phase of the port was inaugurated (details on the page for 20 March 2007 in this series).
• 15 March 2008: According to Dawn (2008), regular cargo handling began at the port. It took 72 months from the foundation stone to a commercial ship.

Do you have a copy of Roznama Atemad from March 2002, or a photograph or memory of the Gwadar ceremony? Please send it to us. We will add it to this page with your name.