The up-to-the-minute and largest $246 million New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA), constructed at an area of 4,300 acres, will be operative by September 2023 to whole-heartedly greet national and international flights at the port city.
As per an official source, the expansion of the airport was at different phases as the passenger terminal building of the project would be finalized by June 2023; work associated with air traffic control by March 2023, whereas the complete construction of the airport would be finished before September 2023.
The New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA) was being operated and managed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which was owned by a tripartite venture between Pakistan, China, and Oman that would be responsible for local and international operations.
It is to be mentioned that the airport development is a part of the mega China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which is a foundation of China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative.
The largest in Pakistan, the NGIA would also become the country’s second airport that can handle A380 aircraft upon its commissioning in 2022.
Read more: New Gwadar International Airport 2nd revised project okayed by ECNEC
It will encourage the expansion of the Gwadar peninsula and expedite trade between Pakistan and China, thus changing the geopolitical status of the region into the geo-economic hub of investment and trade opportunities.
Moreover, the airport would be operated and established according to the open sky policy under the direction of the CAA.
This Airport project was started as an early harvest high-priority project of the CPEC program in 2014.
The Executive Committee gave a nod to the project of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in January 2015 which was being sponsored through a grant contract signed between China and Pakistan in May 2017.
In addition, the Airport development also comprised soil testing on the project site that was initiated in January 2018 and also involved drilling of 300 boreholes at different locations.
The groundbreaking of the mega-airport was held in March 2019.
