Federal Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has said that a water desalination plant would be constructed to provide five million gallons of water per day to the residents of Gwadar. “An approval to this important project will be accorded during the next meeting of Joint Coordination Committee,” he told APP in an interview.

He hoped that the 300 MW coal power plant being set up in the port city would also start functioning this year, adding, it would not only cater to the requirement of Gwadar but the surplus electricity would be supplied in other part of Balochistan province.

The minister informed that an electricity transmission line is also being constructed to link Gwadar city and other areas of Balochistan with the power plant.

Terming Gwadar as the gateway of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he said that after the development of infrastructure by the government in first phase, an expressway to like the port was being completed.

Ahsan Iqbal said the construction work on the Gwadar airport was likely to start this year and added, a Chinese team would soon visit Pakistan and review the design of the airport. He said that a university had also been set up in Gwadar to provide higher education to the youth while a vocational training institute already set up to impart technical training to the locals was being expanded. …

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