CPEC Development in Balochistan.

Byline: Ameer Hamza

Balochistan is at the heart of CPEC where the jewel of BRI Gwadar is building and progressing with each passing day. Gwadar's development progress is sin qua non to the development and progress on BRI. With trade going from the mountains of Kashgar to the Arabian Sea and beyond across the globe, Balochistan is the epitome of global economic prosperity. The province is having five percent of Pakistan's population and is rich in natural resources. With 750 km of the coastline, Gwadar and Pasni are the two major seaports with significant industrial, economic, blue economy, trade, and business hubs. The trends of global integration made both China and Pakistan progress together towards building a shared future. Balochistan with its immense treasures has remained at the forefront of development and progress. CPEC offered much-needed impetus to the revolution of development happening not only across Pakistan but in Balochistan as well. Over the years, Balochistan faced the threats of terrorism and the battleground of the proxy wars, creating challenges for the region to build its strength, development, and progress.

After the advent of the CPEC, Balochistan saw the light of the day. CPEC has made tremendous progress in the province where the communications linkages have been developed, and Chinese companies are investing to offer employment opportunities to the locals. CPEC is following a hybrid approach, a mix of high-end development projects with regional impacts and low-end projects with localized impacts to ensure equitable growth and development in the province.

Some major projects for Balochistan are 1300 MW Hub Coal Power Plant, 300 MW Power plant at Gwadar, East Bay Express Way, Makran Coastal, Gwadar international airport, Gwadar-Nawabash LNG terminal, Gwadar Smart port city, expansion multipurpose terminal including water treatment plant, Gwadar East Bay Expressway, Gwadar hospital up-gradation, Gwadar primary school, and Zhob Quetta highways. The core of the CPEC projects across Pakistan is energy projects which are also spread in Balochistan. In the first phase of the CPEC, the focus was on energy projects. As a result of the crisis of energy for Pakistan, these projects on CPEC were considered a lifeline for the industry. The projects of energy in Balochistan are expected to generate 1620 MW of energy through coal power. Hub Power Plant is its kind power generation plant jointly developed by Hub Power Company Ltd and China Power International Holdings. This is one of the initial coal-powered plants in Balochistan which has gone operational and provides electricity to multiple regions of...