Gwadar (Balochi, , ) is a port city located on the southwestern coast of the Pakistani province of Balochistan and serves as the capital of the South Balochistan region. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea, opposite to Oman and has a population of over 90,000 according to the 2017 census. It was an overseas possession of the Oman from 1783 to 1958. It is about southwest of Turbat. The sister port city of Chabahar in Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan provinces is about to the west of Gwadar. On 2 April 2021, it was declared the capital of the south Balochistan region.
The main industrial concern is a fish-processing factory. Gwadar became part of the sultanate of Muscat and Oman in 1797, and it was not until 1958 that the town and adjoining hinterland were exchanged from Oman to Pakistan.
Gwadar came in the focus of attention after the Kargil War when Pakistan felt the need of having a military naval port and the Karachi-Gwadar Road (Coastal Highway) was built for defence purposes. For most of its history, Gwadar was a small to medium-sized settlement with an economy largely based on artisanal fishing. The strategic value of its location was first recognized in 1954 when it was identified as a suitable site for a deep water port by the United States Geological Survey at the request of Pakistan while the territory was still under Omani rule. Until 2001, the area's potential to be a major deep water port remained untapped under successive Pakistani governments, when construction on the first phase of Gwadar Port was initiated in 2007. The first phase costed $248 million. The port initially remained underutilized after construction for a variety of reasons, including lack of investment, security concerns, and the Government of Pakistan's failure to transfer land as promised to the port operator, Port of Singapore Authority.
In April, 2015, Pakistan and China announced their intention to develop the $46 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which in turn forms part of China's ambitious One Belt, One Road. Gwadar features heavily in CPEC, and is also envisaged to be the link between the One Belt, One Road and Maritime Silk Road project. $1.153 billion worth of infrastructure projects will be invested into the city as part of CPEC, with the aim of linking northern Pakistan and western China to the deep water seaport. The city will also be the site of a floating liquefied natural gas facility that will be built as part of the larger $2.5 billion Gwadar–Nawabshah segment of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline project. In addition to investments directly under the aegis of CPEC in the Gwadar city, the China Overseas Port Holding Company in June, 2016, began construction on the $2 billion Gwadar Special Economic Zone, which is being modelled on the lines of the special economic zones of China. In September, 2016, the Gwadar Development Authority published a request for tenders for the preparation of expropriation and resettlement of Old Town Gwadar.
Etymology
The word "Gwadar" is a combination of two Balochi words – guad meaning wind and dar meaning gateway or door (), thus Gwadar means "the gate of wind".
History
Ancient
The inhabitation of Gwadar, like most of the other areas of Balochistan, appears to be ancient. The area shows inhabitation as early as the Bronze Age with settlements around some of the area's oasis. It is from this settlement pattern that the word Makran, the original name of Balochistan, is derived. For a period, it was a region of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It is believed to have been conquered by the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great. The capital of the satrapy of Gedrosia was Pura, which is thought to have been located near the modern Bampūr, in Iranian Balochistan. During the homeward march of Alexander the Great, his admiral, Nearchus, led a fleet along the modern-day Makran coast and recorded that the area was dry, mountainous, and inhabited by the "Ichthyophagoi" (or "fish-eaters"), an ancient Greek rendering of the ancient Persian phrase "Mahi Khorana," which has itself become the modern word "Makran". After the collapse of Alexander's empire the area was ruled by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander's generals. The region then came under Mauryan rule around 303 BCE, after Seleucus made peace with Emperor Chandragupta and ceded the territory to the Mauryans.