ISLAMABAD: The New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA), a $246m greenfield airport being built at an area of 4,300 acres, would be operational by September 2023.
According to the official source, the passenger terminal building of the project would be completed by June 2023, work related to air traffic control by March 2023, while the overall construction of the airport would be finished before September, 2023.
To be owned by a joint venture between Pakistan, Oman, and China, the airport will handle domestic and international operations whereas it will be managed and operated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) under the open sky policy.
The airport’s development is a part of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) development, which is a cornerstone of China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative.
The airport will be the biggest in Pakistan and also become the nation’s second airport capable of handling A380 aircraft upon its commissioning in 2022. It is expected to stimulate development in the Gwadar peninsula and boost trade between Pakistan and China.
The New Gwadar International Airport development timeline was initiated as an early harvest high-priority project of the CPEC programme in 2014. It was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) in January 2015.
The project is being funded through a grant agreement signed between China and Pakistan in May 2017. Soil testing on the project site started in January 2018 and involved drilling of 300 boreholes in various locations.
The groundbreaking ceremony was held in March 2019, with construction first scheduled to be completed in 2022.
