Gwadar Port - Description
Gwadar [population: 50,000-100,000] is a deep sea warm water port located in Balochistan province of Pakistan. Sitting at the door of the Oil-rich Persian Gulf and the strategic Gulf of Oman, Gwadar is Pakistan's alternate economic, military and strategic base to the already saturated Karachi and Bin Qasim ports, as well as an efficient alternative to the Iranian port of Chah Bahar - a port designed to capture the lucrative Central Asian trade corridor.
An obscure fishing village a few years back, Gwadar warm-water port's inaugural by the Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo on 22 March 2002 marked its entrance into the list of the world's most important economic and strategic locations in a big way. Gwadar Port became functional on 21 December 2008 with the arrival of a large ship carrying fertiliser.
Gwadar is an open roadstead and port in Makran, Baluchistan, situated in 25°08' N. and 62° 19'E., about 290 miles from Karachi. On the hill overlooking the town is a stone dam of fine workmanship. The shore of Gwadar Bay from Sar trends west-southwestward and southward 12 miles to Gwadar Promontory, and is low and sandy; it then trends eastward 2 miles to Ras Nuh. The bay is generally shallow, a flat of about 2 fathoms extending from 1 to 2 miles eastward from the isthmus. The deepest water is off Sar and Jabal Mahdi, and the 5-fathom line from Ras Nuh trends toward the highest peak of Jabal Mahdi; westward of this line the water shoals regularly toward the flat, with sand bottom.
The bay is well sheltered from southwesterly winds, but in the southwest monsoon the long low swell rounding Ras Nuh causes vessels to Fdll heavily. During easterly winds communication with the shore is sometimes difficult, but these winds are rarely strong enough to endanger a vessel; a steamer at such a time might enter West Bay.
Gwadar Head is a rocky peninsula, the eastern extremity of which, Ras Nuh, bears 214°, distant 8| miles from Sar; it is 7 miles long east and west, about 1 mile broad, and connected with the mainland by a low sandy isthmus 800 yards broad, on which stands Gwadar town, and on either side of which are Gwadar and West Bays. The headland is surrounded by cliffs, and slopes down from the highest bluff of 480 feet, which rises southward of the west coast of the isthmus. Ras Kamiti, the western point of the headland, is a cliff about 70 feet high. A small white tomb on the southern edge of the cliff, about 1 mile eastward of Ras Kamiti, is conspicuous on northerly bearings when the sun is shining on it.
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