KARACHI, Nov 28: President Musharraf will formally inaugurate the first phase of the Gwadar Port in January. Built at the cost of $250 million with the cooperation of People's Republic of China , the project will have far-reaching impact on the economy of the country and the region.

It has also been learnt that the opening ceremony will be attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao. According to a port's source, Gwadar deep-sea project will have three berths to receive mother ships which took over two years for completion.

Gwadar Town Nazim Babu Ghulab termed the construction of the port a turning point in the history of the country which he said would change the economic situation of the province as well as of the country. He said work on the Mekran Coastal Highway linking Karachi with the coastal region was another significant development that took place recently in the province.

He claimed that national and foreign investment had increased manifold in Gwadar with the completion of coastal highway in record time, extraordinary steps taken by the government for maintaining law and order and start of port activities, yet there was lot to do for transforming Gwadar into an international port city.

Babu Ghulab said: "Though the economic activity in the port town has already been geared as investors have started pouring in their money by purchasing land for their prospective projects, but at the same time we must not ignore the interest of local people."

Talking to this scribe, he said that there was no security problem in the town as majority of area people were peace-loving and law abiding. However, he pointed out that apprehensions of local people that they would be converted into minority must also be removed by the federal and provincial authorities.

At the same time, the nazim said that the government agencies should not create unnecessary hurdles in the transactions of property. He suggested that a clear policy should be framed in this respect and made public.

Gwadar nazim said that the district government had demanded a grant of one billion rupees from the federal government for inter-city development activity. For this purpose, he added that he had approached the government through the Parliamentary Committee on Balochistan.

Babu Ghulab said that the fund would be utilized for infrastructure development activity such as the provision of health and education facilities to local population.

According to him, the district government immediately needs Rs200 million as a first instalment for infrastructure development and establishing educational institutions and health facilities. "At present, we can hardly spend Rs10 million in these heads," he said.

However, he conceded that there was a lack of coordination among district, provincial and federal governments on different issues pertaining to land policy and devolution of powers.

The nazim complained that the devolution plan had not been executed in the district as some important departments such as fisheries, building and roads were yet to be handed over to the district government.

He said that local people owned all the land in and around Gwadar but they were facing hurdles in the transfer of land to investors although there was no official restrictions on it.

In reply to a question, the nazim said that majority of the area people depend on fishing for their livelihood. He said that incomplete devolution of power, especially of fisheries department, was the major cause of concern for people as well as district government.