ISLAMABAD, March 10: The Senate Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping has constituted a three-member committee to get resolved the security and land-acquisition problems in the way of constructing road and rail links to Gwadar Port.

The Senate body in its meeting on Monday, with Gulshan Saeed in the chair, took this decision after taking serious notice of the delay in completion of the project.

In view of the peculiar conditions prevailing in Balochistan, the Senate committee also considered the inhospitable terrain and difficulties concerning the security of the port as well as the people working there and acquisition of land for construction of link roads.Accordingly, a committee was constituted which would be headed by Senator Abdul Malik and include Senator Muhammad Ismael Buledi and Senator Mir Israrullah Khan as its members.

The senate committee directed that the road and rail links should be completed as early as possible along with other facilities to realise the full potential of Gwadar Port so that it could emerge as a major economic hub in the region.“The Gwadar Port cannot be fully operational without having good quality, all-weather and dependable link roads,” the participants observed.

Members of the committee called upon the government to accord the highest priority to the project.

The National Highway Authority chairman informed the Senate committee that road connectivity with the hinterland was key to market the port for transit trade with Afghanistan, Central Asian Republics and China.

The committee directed the NHA to speed up the pace of work and assured that it would extend all possible help to enable the authority overcome its financial difficulties by taking up the matter with the Ministry of Finance and Planning Division, etc.

The members of the committee said that the roads in Balochistan were susceptible to floods, therefore, the quality of roads must be such that these could withstand the vicissitudes of weather.

The committee also asked the government to make arrangements for provision of drinking water at Gwadar and link it up with the national electricity grid as early as possible.

The Senate committee was also given a presentation on the delayed the Rs100 billion Gwadar-Quetta rail-link project.

It took strong exception to the provincial government’s violation of the ban on sale of state land in Balochistan imposed by the federal government.

It summoned the provincial land revenue officials along with the relevant records to explain the reasons in the next meeting.

Senators Mir Israrullah Khan, Dr Muhammad Ismail Buledi, Saadia Abbasi, Kalsoom Parveen and Dr Abdul Malik and senior officials of the Ministry of Railways and the NHA attended the meeting.