Once fully functional, the complex could (conservatively) scrape in anywhere between $1 billion to $2 billion annually, they added.
PKONWEB Report — The Senate Standing Committee on Defense Production has called for work to be accelerated on the country’s long-delayed program to develop a naval shipyard in Gwadar, a port city on Pakistan’s southwestern coast abutting Balochistan.
The Committee observed that Gwadar was an ideal site for the construction of a modern shipyard as there was no ship building facility in the entire gulf region as of now.
None of the Gulf Arab countries have a proper shipbuilding facility except offering limited dry docking facilities including Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard (ASRY) in Bahrain and in the UAE.
And experts say India at this point in time has no comparison to Pakistan in terms of shipbuilding and dry-docking facilities.
Iran, which operates the largest commercial shipping fleet, has also developed basic know how, yet it will take a long time to become a viable shipbuilding nation.
Building a state-of-the-art shipyard at Gwadar would be a force multiplier for Pakistan’s economy, experts say.
Once fully functional, the complex could (conservatively) scrape in anywhere between $1 billion to $2 billion annually, they added.
The meeting also heard a briefing on the establishment of Gwadar Shipyard project on an area of 750 acres of land.
During the meeting it was highlighted that at the time of creation of Pakistan, the country inherited one shipyard at Chittagong. Bangladesh now has 23 shipyards and it has become ship exporting country, while India has over 43 big shipyards. Pakistan unfortunately still only remains dependent on Karachi Shipyard, constructed in 1957.
The Senate added that the shipyard project should be overseen by the country’s Ministry of Defense Production, which should “supervise all work [including] conducting feasibility studies [and] infrastructure to [support] future load and density requirements”.
The new shipyard would be focused on meeting the Pakistan Navy?s requirements and defense export opportunities, alongside pursuing commercial shipbuilding contracts to strengthen revenue streams, said the Senate.
Pakistan Navy’s responsibilities have increased in the wake of multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that connects the deep sea Gwadar port with China.
The Committee also supported the proposal of asking the commercial attaches to work as ex-officio defense attaches in different countries.
Sir, its just talkie talkie no government official or politician is interested in such a longterm project. We have not been able to address fundamental civic issues of the city of Gawader. Like water, electricity, public institutions, civil administration. If you have been to Gawader, the weather is not friendly; the locals are hostile to outsiders, etc. etc. Politicians like Mengle having myopic view cannot come of their rants of provincial autonomy, missing persons, development funds and what not.
See an example of Karachi it was built on the defence budget and by people of absolute authority no Mengle or Bugti or anybody opposing the development.
Gawader development or projects like Shipyard need extraordinary authority, money, political will AND justification for the development of city Gawader. As I said talkie talkie. Ha ha.