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Pakistan showcases Gwadar port

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal is among 40 Islamabad-based diplomats who will be flown by the Pakistan Government to Gwadar in Balochistan on Thursday for a day-long visit to the new deep sea port that is coming up there.

Pakistan is building the port with Chinese assistance. The first phase was completed in December 2005, and work is in progress on the second phase.

Operations by March

Last month, Pakistan awarded the management of Gwadar port to the Port of Singapore, which is expected to take charge by the end of January and begin operations by March.

Pakistan is projecting Gwadar as a strategically located transhipment facility, as well as a gateway to a trade and energy corridor to China and the landlocked Central Asian republics.

President Pervez Musharraf has also talked of Gwadar port as a development project that will benefit the troubled Balochistan province by providing employment opportunities and bringing in investment.

But nationalist Baloch leaders have rejected the port as an imposition by the Federal Government on the province, which holds no benefits for the local population.

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