A recent story in Herald raises serious questions regarding the feasibility of Gawadar Port. One important point was of infra-structure. The article raises following points.<br />
<br />
- Makran Coastal Highway will connect Gawadar to Karachi. So, if goods have to pass through Karachi, why dock them on Gawadar?<br />
<br />
- Another road links Gawadar with Rato Dehro. This will again connect Gawadar not with Central Asia but with Punjab.<br />
<br />
The best option would be to connect Gawadar to Quetta to Chaman. But this has its own issues:<br />
<br />
1) Road/Rail construction in one of the toughest terrain of the country<br />
2) Law and order sittuation in Blaochistan<br />
3) The goods have to travel through Kunar and other neighboring provinces of Afghanistan, which are raging with insurgency.<br />
<br />
A feaseable solution would be to make Gawadar a trans-shipping port. Again, that would put Gawadar in an underdog-status in a competition against the much better off ports in the Straits of Hormuz!
<br />
- Makran Coastal Highway will connect Gawadar to Karachi. So, if goods have to pass through Karachi, why dock them on Gawadar?<br />
<br />
- Another road links Gawadar with Rato Dehro. This will again connect Gawadar not with Central Asia but with Punjab.<br />
<br />
The best option would be to connect Gawadar to Quetta to Chaman. But this has its own issues:<br />
<br />
1) Road/Rail construction in one of the toughest terrain of the country<br />
2) Law and order sittuation in Blaochistan<br />
3) The goods have to travel through Kunar and other neighboring provinces of Afghanistan, which are raging with insurgency.<br />
<br />
A feaseable solution would be to make Gawadar a trans-shipping port. Again, that would put Gawadar in an underdog-status in a competition against the much better off ports in the Straits of Hormuz!