Gwadar

Gwadar (Urdu: گوادر, Urdu pronunciation: [ɡəʋɑːd̪əɾ]) is a port city on the southwestern coast of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea, opposite Oman, and has a population of over 90,000 according to the 2017 census. It was an overseas possession of Oman from 1783 to 1958, when it was purchased by Pakistan. It is about 120 km (75 mi) southwest of Turbat. The sister port city of Chabahar in Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province is about 170 km (110 mi) to the west of Gwadar. On 2 April 2021, it was declared the winter capital of Balochistan.

Founded in the late 17th century as a fishing settlement, Gwadar became a regional trade hub within the Omani Empire in the 20th century before declaring itself a part of Pakistan (1958). Modest investment from China helped accelerate Gwadar's development from 2013 to 2020 when the city started to develop its economy. In 2025, overall investment reached 1 billion USD.

The main industrial concern is a fish-processing factory. Gwadar became part of the sultanate of Muscat and Oman in 1797, and it was not until 1958 that the town and adjoining hinterland were exchanged from Oman to Pakistan.

Gwadar came in the focus of attention after the Kargil War when Pakistan felt the need of having a military naval port and the Karachi-Gwadar Road (Coastal Highway) was built for defence purposes. For most of its history, Gwadar was a small to medium-sized settlement with an economy largely based on artisanal fishing. The strategic value of its location was first recognized in 1954 when it was identified as a suitable site for a deep-water port by the United States Geological Survey at the request of Pakistan while the territory was still under Omani rule. Until 2001, the area's potential to be a major deep-water port remained untapped under successive Pakistani governments, when construction on the first phase of Gwadar Port was initiated in 2007. The first phase cost $248 million. The port initially remained underutilized after construction for a variety of reasons, including lack of investment, security concerns, and the Government of Pakistan's failure to transfer land as promised to the port operator, Port of Singapore Authority.

In April 2015, Pakistan and China announced their intention to develop the $46 billion China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which in turn forms part of China's ambitious One Belt, One Road. Gwadar features heavily in CPEC, and is also envisaged to be the link between the One Belt, One Road and Maritime Silk Road project. $1.153 billion worth of infrastructure projects will be invested into the city as part of CPEC, with the aim of linking northern Pakistan and western China to the deep-water seaport. The city will also be the site of a floating liquefied natural gas facility that will be built as part of the larger $2.5 billion Gwadar–Nawabshah segment of the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline project. Despite concerns over the United States sanctions on Iran, Pakistan is going ahead with the construction of a pipeline from the Iranian border to Gwadar as of 2024. This is partly to avoid contractual penalties and partly to avoid overreliance on the Gwadar Coal–Power Plant which requires imported coal. In addition to investments directly under the aegis of CPEC in the Gwadar city, the China Overseas Port Holding Company in June 2016 began construction on the $2 billion Gwadar Special Economic Zone, which is being modelled on the lines of the special economic zones of China. In September 2016, the Gwadar Development Authority published a request for tenders for the preparation of expropriation and resettlement of Old Town Gwadar.

The word "Gwadar" is a combination of two Balochi words – gwát meaning wind and dar meaning gateway or door (Balochi: گوات ءُ در‎), thus Gwadar means "the gate of wind".

The inhabitation of Gwadar, like most of the other areas of Balochistan, appears to be ancient. The area shows inhabitation as early as the Bronze Age with settlements around some of the area's oasis. It is from this settlement pattern that the word Makran, the original name of Balochistan, is derived. For a period, it was a region of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It is believed to have been conquered by the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great. The capital of the satrapy of Gedrosia was Pura, which is thought to have been located near the modern Bampūr, in Iranian Balochistan. During the homeward march of Alexander the Great, his admiral, Nearchus, led a fleet along the modern-day Makran coast and recorded that the area was dry, mountainous, and inhabited by the "Ichthyophagoi" (or "fish-eaters"), an ancient Greek rendering of the ancient Persian phrase "Mahi Khorana," which has itself become the modern word "Makran". After the collapse of Alexander's empire the area was ruled by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander's generals. The region then came under Mauryan rule around 303 BCE, after Seleucus made peace with Emperor Chandragupta and ceded the territory to the Mauryans.

The descendants of the original inhabitants are known as Med people, They were mentioned in the early Muslim historiography as seafarers; some of them carried piracy as Bawarij in the Indian Ocean from their harbors in Debal, Kutch and Kathiawar, to as far as the mouth of river Tigris and Ceylon. Today they are integrated and speak Baloch and Urdu. They are related to the early Sindhi peoples of Makran such as the Jadgals.