Senate panel for speedily completing road, rail connectivity with Gwadar

ISLAMABAD, Jan 03 (APP):The Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives on Friday directed the authorities concerned to work speedily on completion of road and railway network to connect Gwadar city with rest of the country.

In its meeting chaired by Senator Agha Shahzaib Khan Durrani, the committee observed that Gwadar’s connectivity with the rest of country through road network as well as railway lines is of paramount importance and directed Pakistan Railways to give a detailed briefing on the current position, issues and hiccups and long term planning on prospects of the same.

Director General Gwadar Development Authority gave a detailed briefing on Gwadar Smart Port City Master Plan.

The Committee was told that the concept of master plan had two elements-the Gwadar city and the Gwadar Port- and the purpose was to create strategic objectives, create sustainable development and recommend means and interventions to develop Gwadar as a special economic district.

Identifying Gwadar’s competitive advantages, facilitating tourism, public private partnerships, industrial development were also among the objectives.

It was informed that in order to realise the hopes of making Gwadar a smart city good electricity supply and high speed internet were basic requirements and neither was available at present.

The meeting was informed that the master plan included inception report, diagnostic report, alternative plan report and integrated report.

Short term priority will be development of IT systems, medium term will address challenges for sustainable development, and long term priority will be efforts to achieve the goal of smart city. The Committee was told that the city and port would give huge long term benefits and revenue to the country but it had many prerequisites attached to it and multiple steps need to be taken to attract investment as well as make the population prosperous.

The Committee was told that according to the master plan around 4000 acres is old town area, 22,000 acres residential area, 19,000 acres industrial area on east bay, 10000 acres joint cantt area, 4,000 acres airport area, 2,000 acres commercial area, 3000 acres central business district and 4000 acres recreational area on west bay.

It was told that there is a need for sustainable urban development, providing one window operations, safe city project and invisible surveillance and providing solutions to core bottlenecks restraining urban development.

The Committee was told that an amount of Rs 2 billion was required for paying liabilities and completion of Phase-II of the internal water distribution project. The Committee directed the ministry to work upon the mechanism and look into the availability of funds to see if money can be reappropriated from other heads and given to Gawdar Development Authority (GDA).

The Committee also directed that the remaining amount of Rs 13 billion from the Rs 25 billion allocated for Business Plan should also be released expeditiously.

The meeting was attended among others by Senators Shaheen Khalid Butt, Gianchand, Kauda Babar, Usman Khan Kakar, Mir Kabeer Shahi, Secretary Planning, Development and Reforms, Director General Gwadar Development Authority and officials from the ministry.