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Gwadar port goes operational..........................
Balochistan CM Sanaullah Zehri, COAS Gen Raheel Sharif, PM Nawaz Sharif and Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong attend ceremony. ─ Photo by Khurram Husain
A convoy of trucks pictured near the Gwadar port on Saturday. — Photo by Khurram Husain
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at a grand opening ceremony at the Gwadar port on Sunday marked the operationalisation and opening of trade activities at the port, a key project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
PM Nawaz marks opening of trade at Gwadar port. ─APP
PM Nawaz while addressing a ceremony marking the departure of the first major trade cargo from Gwadar Port emphasised Pakistan's commitment to China's One Belt-One Road initiative.
"We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the CPEC and all the projects under its umbrella are materialised within the given time," he said.
"This idea was conceived only two years ago, and this day marks the breaking of the dawn of a new era."
"CPEC is for entire Pakistan and no region or province will be left out of it," the PM said, in an apparent attempt at putting to bed the reservations of smaller provinces that claim the project doesn't benefit them.
"The newly-constructed roads in Balochistan have opened up new areas that were inaccessible and deprived of development... and have brought peace to a volatile region," the premier said.
Top civil and military leadership, including Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, Balochistan Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai, Balochistan CM Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will attend at the event.
A view of the port. ─ Photo by Khurram Husain
Executives from Sino Trans, a Chinese logistics company, will also attend the ceremony as well as ministers for defence and planning and a number of politicians, especially from Balochistan.
This is the largest collection of VIPs hosted by Gwadar since it witnessed the signing of the 2009 National Finance Commission Award.
Amid tight security and a stream of arriving VIPs, the first consignment of cargoes from China to depart from the Pakistani port arrived at Gwadar on Saturday.
All day long, a stream of trucks of different sizes lined up outside the port to be individually scanned before being ushered in.
Convoys come together
The convoys that joined up in Quetta took diverse routes. One convoy came from China, carrying almost 150 containers which were then shifted onto Pakistani trucks at the Sust border crossing south of Khunjerab in the Northern Areas.
This convoy, which carried the bulk of the cargoes to be loaded onto the two vessels berthed at Gwadar port, consisted of trucks as long as 57 feet and travelled down the Karakoram Highway, then turned East towards Jund on the sheer banks of the Indus river about 100km south of Attock.
At Jund, it was met by another convoy that originated in Sialkot — with 50 trucks carrying around 100 containers — and together the whole convoy crossed the Indus river to Kohat where they stayed the night before moving on to Dera Ismail Khan, Zhob and then Quetta, where it stopped for another night.
They were joined by a third convoy originating in Lahore and Sialkot, consisting of 45 trucks carrying approximately 90 containers that moved south to Sukkur, then west on the N65 highway past Sibi and Mastung before joining their companions in Quetta.
From Quetta, this convoy moved down the N85 highway that runs through Kalat and Panjgur to Hoshab where it intersects the M8 highway that runs through Turbat to link up with the Makran coastal highway just east of Gwadar. M8 was the road where the famous picture of the premier and the army chief riding together in a jeep was taken.
The containers carry cargoes ranging from rice and cotton, to Chinese machinery, some of which is destined for Gwadar for the ongoing development works here, and the rest going abroad.
Two ships — Al Hussain Zanzibar and Cosco Wellington — are berthed at Gwadar to receive the cargoes. They are setting sail for ports in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the UAE and the EU late on Sunday, according to information provided by the FWO.
Around Rs35 billion has been spent on road infrastructure for the CPEC projects in Balochistan alone since 2014, says the FWO chief. He said he pushed for the convoys to take these routes to show that the road infrastructure built during this time is fully capable of handling cargo consignments of this size.
Balochistan CM Sanaullah Zehri, COAS Gen Raheel Sharif, PM Nawaz Sharif and Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong attend ceremony. ─ Photo by Khurram Husain
A convoy of trucks pictured near the Gwadar port on Saturday. — Photo by Khurram Husain
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at a grand opening ceremony at the Gwadar port on Sunday marked the operationalisation and opening of trade activities at the port, a key project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
PM Nawaz marks opening of trade at Gwadar port. ─APP
PM Nawaz while addressing a ceremony marking the departure of the first major trade cargo from Gwadar Port emphasised Pakistan's commitment to China's One Belt-One Road initiative.
"We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the CPEC and all the projects under its umbrella are materialised within the given time," he said.
"This idea was conceived only two years ago, and this day marks the breaking of the dawn of a new era."
"CPEC is for entire Pakistan and no region or province will be left out of it," the PM said, in an apparent attempt at putting to bed the reservations of smaller provinces that claim the project doesn't benefit them.
"The newly-constructed roads in Balochistan have opened up new areas that were inaccessible and deprived of development... and have brought peace to a volatile region," the premier said.
Top civil and military leadership, including Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, Balochistan Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai, Balochistan CM Nawab Sanaullah Zehri, and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will attend at the event.
A view of the port. ─ Photo by Khurram Husain
Executives from Sino Trans, a Chinese logistics company, will also attend the ceremony as well as ministers for defence and planning and a number of politicians, especially from Balochistan.
This is the largest collection of VIPs hosted by Gwadar since it witnessed the signing of the 2009 National Finance Commission Award.
Amid tight security and a stream of arriving VIPs, the first consignment of cargoes from China to depart from the Pakistani port arrived at Gwadar on Saturday.
All day long, a stream of trucks of different sizes lined up outside the port to be individually scanned before being ushered in.
Convoys come together
The convoys that joined up in Quetta took diverse routes. One convoy came from China, carrying almost 150 containers which were then shifted onto Pakistani trucks at the Sust border crossing south of Khunjerab in the Northern Areas.
This convoy, which carried the bulk of the cargoes to be loaded onto the two vessels berthed at Gwadar port, consisted of trucks as long as 57 feet and travelled down the Karakoram Highway, then turned East towards Jund on the sheer banks of the Indus river about 100km south of Attock.
At Jund, it was met by another convoy that originated in Sialkot — with 50 trucks carrying around 100 containers — and together the whole convoy crossed the Indus river to Kohat where they stayed the night before moving on to Dera Ismail Khan, Zhob and then Quetta, where it stopped for another night.
They were joined by a third convoy originating in Lahore and Sialkot, consisting of 45 trucks carrying approximately 90 containers that moved south to Sukkur, then west on the N65 highway past Sibi and Mastung before joining their companions in Quetta.
From Quetta, this convoy moved down the N85 highway that runs through Kalat and Panjgur to Hoshab where it intersects the M8 highway that runs through Turbat to link up with the Makran coastal highway just east of Gwadar. M8 was the road where the famous picture of the premier and the army chief riding together in a jeep was taken.
The containers carry cargoes ranging from rice and cotton, to Chinese machinery, some of which is destined for Gwadar for the ongoing development works here, and the rest going abroad.
Two ships — Al Hussain Zanzibar and Cosco Wellington — are berthed at Gwadar to receive the cargoes. They are setting sail for ports in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the UAE and the EU late on Sunday, according to information provided by the FWO.
Around Rs35 billion has been spent on road infrastructure for the CPEC projects in Balochistan alone since 2014, says the FWO chief. He said he pushed for the convoys to take these routes to show that the road infrastructure built during this time is fully capable of handling cargo consignments of this size.
