by Construction of the proposed Gwadar International Airport in Pakistan is scheduled to start in April this year following the completion of planning work.
The $246m airport is located in the province of Balochistan region, near Iran and Oman borders, and is said to be the largest in Pakistan.
According to the latest official record, the design and work plan has been approved and the construction work would be started in 1st quarter of 2019. The soil testing on the land that began in January 2018 has been completed through 300 boreholes made on various locations.
Currently, the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) comprising the Pakistani and the Chinese officials look forward to initiate work on the Gwadar Airport in March as the feasibility study of the project has been completed, reviewed and approved by the competent authorities.
The proposed airport will span over an area of 4,300 acres and will be able to accommodate narrow-body aircraft, including ATR 72 and Boeing B-737, as well as wide-body aircraft such as Boeing B-747.
It will be the biggest airport of Pakistan. In comparison to other airports like Karachi Airport (3,700 acres), Islamabad International Airport (3,600 acres), Lahore Airport (2,800 acres), the Gwadar Airport will be built on 4,300 acres.
Unlike many of the other CPEC projects in Gwadar, the New Gwadar International Airport is not financed by a loan from China but through a Chinese grant.
The sources also told that the Pakistani government is likely to announce the initiation of formal work on the Gwadar International Airport in the next two weeks.
The Government of Balochistan has already added the Gwadar Airport to its master plan for Gwadar, which also involves projects to transform the region into a financial hub.
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