Gwadar is the District Headquarter of Makran Division in Balochistan, the largest province of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is situated on the coastal line of Makran. Along the coastal line, there are four “tehsils” including Gwadar, Jiwani, Kulanch and Ormara. Jiani is the only one on the western part of Gwadar, joining Iranian border on Pakistan side. Kulanch and Ormara on its eastern side are connecting District Lasbela and to Karachi finally. The distance between Gwadar and Karachi in this way is around 715 Km.

After the division of the Indian subcontinent into two sovereign states, area except Gwadar and its surroundings joined the Balochistan States Union, as part of Makran state, in early 1949 along with Kalat, Lasbela and Kharan. In October 1955, Makran was given the status of a district of former West Pakistan province after its accession to Pakistan. In 1958, Gwadar and its surrounding area were reverted back from Maskat to Pakistan and were made a tehsil of Makran district. On 1st July 1970, when one unit was dissolved and Balochistan gained the status of a province, Makran became one of its 8 districts. On 1st July 1977, Makran was declared a division and was divided into three districts, named Panjgur, Turbat (renamed Kech) and Gwadar. Gwadar was notified as a district on Jul 1, 1977 with its headquarters at Gwadar town.

Gwadar is a fishermen village or town just like Karachi used to be in its pre-development era. But now, once Karachi is counted in the top most cosmopolitan cities of the world, nobody wants to remember the original design of Karachi. The main reason behind Karachi’s such rapid development was its port and business activities generated by international business. Government of Pakistan has an approach of similar kind to develop the region of Gwadar. It was acquired by the government of Pakistan in 1958 by the then president, Field Martial General Ayub Khan. The initial survey of the site was started in 2000. General Pervez Musharaf inaugurated the project in the year 2000, and it was declared to be a Free Port in the national budget of 2003.

The real hub of attraction a piece of land 8 Km away from the mainland area of Gwadar into the Arabian Sea i.e. Gwadar PORT. This piece of land is 12 Km long and 2 Km wide and consists of eastern and western parts. Both the parts are sub-divided into two parts again i.e. Southern part and Northern part. Look at the illustration below.

The eastern part of Gwadar port consists of a solid hill and deep sea. The deep-sea part is approximately half of it (whole north) and the western part is a hill. The hill is steep down into the sea on its northern face, which is a real natural gift making the port unique in the region. By region, we mean Gulf area ports and the ports in the line of Arabian Sea region, including the ports of Karachi, Mumbai and Shangahai. The southern part of the hill is like slope falling down into the open sea. The southern part is occupied by Pakistan Navy, thus providing safety to the port and Gwadar. The hill is high enough to protect itself from the foreign invaders in case of war, with and exception of air attack. The western part of the port is again divided into two parts i.e. Northern and Southern part. The northern part contains a hill again, where the every first 7-star hotel (PC) of Pakistan was constructed, many other hotels are also bidding to possess land there. The southern part is and old settlement which is to be demolished and the people residing there are being given option, by the government of Pakistan, to relocate their settlements in Quetta or some other place.
The port, for the shipment activities, is being developed on the northern part of the eastern side of Gwadar port. It will comprise of two Phases i.e. Phase-I & Phase-II. Out of the two phases, phase-I is almost completed and some Chinese company has started using it but a full engagement of the port will take place after the completion of the Phase-I, in a short span of time. It is most likely to inaugurate by the President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharaf in the month of December 2004.

In addition to all these developments, the government of Pakistan has declared Gwadar port as a FREE PORT, and the proposed industrial area stretched on 10,000 acres is announced to be a TAX FREE Industrial one. These steps will accelerate the investments in the region. According to an independent survey, Gwadar shall generate revenue of 2bn---3.6 billion. in the years to come that will increase with the growing interest of the multinationals.
The government of Pakistan has developed and organization that looks after the matters of Gwadar i.e. Gwadar Development Authority (GDA). In the recent months, GDA has planned an area of 46,000 acres to develop initially. It will be the first ever residential, commercial and industrial area simultaneously, in Gwadar to be developed officially. The town planners of GDA have stretched a map for the purpose. It is the Gwadar Master Plan.