China doesn’t have any port of warm waters, which can be used the whole year. The shanghai port is approximately 16000 km from china’s industrial zone and sea travel takes an additional two to three months. This costs them a lot in terms of taxes and duties as well. Compared to this, Gawadar port is only at a distance of 2500 km from West China and the port will be working the whole year due to its warm waters. CPEC will thus give China a shortest access to warm waters. This will reduce the transportation cost for Chinese goods to international market both in the form of time and money.
China interests in Gawadar is motivated by the latter’s strategic location as well. Gawadar is just 72 km from the Iranian border and 400 km east of the Strait of Hormuz, a major conduit of global oil supplies. Gawadar will thus provide a “Listening Post” to Beijing from where it can moniter US naval activity in the Persian Gulf, Indian activity in the Arabian Sea, and future US-Indian maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean. Due to this factor CPEC is also called a strategic corridor by many analysts and the project is considered to be a part of the new great game which further highlights the issue in international politics.
Gawadara is an important costel town in Baluchistan. The port has the potential to serve as a secure outlet as well as a storage and trans-shipment hub for the Middle East and Central Asia Oil and gas supplies through CPEC passing through Baluchistan and Pakistan. Gawadar is an oil supply port which is not influenced/ controlled by any Naval Power including US. After taking over operational control of Gawadar port China will relaunch the Gawadar oil refinery project, which was halted in 2009, due to security concerns. The refinery will have a total capacity of 19 million tons of oil per year. The petroleum products produced in Gawadar refinery may be transported to Kashghar in Western China by Pipeline. The proposed refinery and oil pipeline is actually a part of CPEC. CPEC is therefore also called the China Pakistan Energy Corridor.
China is the world’s second largest importer of oil, with 80% of her imports going through the unsafe Strait of Malacca and South China Sea. A rail, road and oil pipeline linking Gawadar with Kashghar in Western China provides Beijing an alternative route to the oil-rich Middle East, avoiding the Strait of Malacca and the dangerous maritime routes through the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. This will save china from many hazards and security issues. Chinese engineers have already completed a feasibility study for the pipeline and rail/road links from Gawadar to Kashghar via KKH. Thus CPEC will provide China with an efficient route for her oil supplies from the oil rich countries.
CPEC is a vital artery for developing transport mechanism of the chines goods for its easy access to the international market. Transport is thus an imperative factor in the proposed project. According to an estimation about 0.7 million containers will be transported through the proposed road/rail network from China through Pakistan to Gawadar port and to international market. In Pakistan the Sost dry port authorities have already purchased 400 kanals of land for developing a hub for such mega transports. National Logistics Cell in Pakistan has already got the contract of supplying these massive transport goods from Sost Dry Port to Gawadar Port. This massive transport will grant employment opportunities to Pakistani citizens in the form of human resource for transportation and the accessories work for such a huge transportation.
CPEC will also develop infrastructure in the lands crossed by the proposed project. Development of roads and rail network will impact the infrastructure in Pakistan. Only the food restaurants needed to uphold this massive transport activity will employ thousands of human resource. The implementation of this gigantic project will bring enormous machinery to Pakistan for the development of infrastructure in Pakistan at large.
Industrial parks are also proposed in the project and technology transfer from China to Pakistan will help boosting the existing industrial sector in Pakistan. The raw material, labor availability, unemployment produced human resource and proposed energy projects in CPEC will improve this industrial and production sector in Pakistan.
Road development is the first phase of the implementation of the project and three routes are proposed in which two, the eastern and western route, got importance and viewership. The western route will be crossing through Gawadar, Turbet, Khuzdhar, Qallat, Queta, Zhob, D.I. Khan, Kohat, Peshawar, and Abbottabad, and through Karakurram Highway (KKH) will reach Gilgit passing through Khujrab Pass to western China. This route was proposed in 2013 and the All Parties Conference (APC) of 28th May, 2015 endorsed the construction of the western route on priority basis as it passes through the underdeveloped regions of Pakistan and is the shortest route from China to Gawadar Port. Prior to the APC there were rumors for potential changes in the route of the project and the APC was convened for creating national consensus on the proposed project. In the APC the Prime Minister ensured the parliamentary members of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, after their reservations on some changes in the route, that the western route will be constructed on priority basis. The APC resolved that the western route, being the shortest route will be constructed in the first phase.
Recently debates on the project aroused as the issue of route change in favor of the Punjab province come to surface once again. Now it is proposed that the road will emerge from Gawadar and will go to Khuzdar. Form Khuzdar it will pass through Sukkar, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Faisalabad, Lahore, and Rawalpindi, to Havelian. From Havelian the Atta Abad-Havellian road is the main artery of CPEC route and through this road CPEC will be connected through Abottabad to Gilgit through KKH. Khunjrab Pass will than link the Chinese western provinces to Pakistan. These changes in the route will deprive the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan from the benefits of CPEC project. Adventurism of the central government to reward Punjab with the rights of the people of the other provinces may have bleak impression on the national unity. Also this new route, called the eastern route, is a lengthy route comparatively and will be about 1700 kilometers long than the western route.
All the political and religious parties of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan including the ruling PML (N) are on the same page over the route change issue but the priority of the central government seems to be aimed at rewarding her voters: the people of the Punjab. Creation of national consensus over the route change is a much needed call of the day but prognosis for any betterment are bleak as central government has to bring mega-projects to her voters in the Punjab.
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