KARACHI, Aug 3: The Gwadar master plan prepared by Nespak has totally underestimated the population projections and needs of local population, a study shows.

According to the proposed master plan, the population of Gwadar in year 2010 will be only around 135,000 and in 2030 it will be only around 500,000.

The projected population growth is too low and for a new modern city, it is bound to be much more in the initial years. This change in population figures will have a direct impact on the whole master plan.

The planners perhaps have no concept about the future of Gwadar and that of a to-be modern city. The direction and methodology is totally missing in the approach and it is indicative that no proper socio-economic or even demographic studies had been conducted.

There has been a total dependency on the data available through various sources and also that on pure assumptions.

There are no case studies of modern towns. Even the design and planning considerations / parameters are missing.

It is important to develop a master plan keeping in mind the port as well as tourism-related activities and both these activities would actually complement each other in creating a strong base for economic growth and development of the area.

There is no reference about the available potential in the area and also the uplifting of the current economic activity and interests of locals.

It is important that we create a positive environment to incorporate the locals rather than trying to push them back due to shear ignorance.

The whole report thus becomes under worked as it ignores all other activities which are correlated. Even today there is tremendous pressure and once the deep sea port and coastal highway projects are completed, the population of Gwadar will multiply in unimaginable proportions. And thus it will have to be intelligently foreseen as if we are unable to coup up with the population pressure, the whole concept of making Gwadar into a second major deep-sea port will fail. In the master plan, local population has been totally neglected and no sincere and concentrated effort has been seen for the economic development of these locals and it seems it has been preconceived that they would be pushed out of the city.

Despite the fact that there exists a major activity of fishing and boat making and this could be further developed for the benefits of these locals, the plan fails to address the issue properly.

Similarly not much effort is made to provide modern facilities in the fields of education and health.

Tourism will also become a major industry and it is also left out without any major input in terms of ideas and its successful implementation.

The most important part missing in this master plan is finalization of policies and guidelines and based on which proper town planning and building regulations should have been initiated at the outset.

The success of any plan will depend on its implementation and this is the first step one takes in any new and modern city development.

It seems the whole report needs to be renamed as an initial working paper. It is surprising that the whole report leaves out a number of important factors essentially required to develop a master plan.

The plan should be one, which can take us towards an integrated development instead of banking on ad hocism, and it is important to manage the forces of change accordingly.

The study has possibly missed out a number of important components essentially required for preparing a master plan. The population and demographic studies are incomplete.

There is no reference about the socio economic conditions of the people presently living in the area other than mentioning some statistics borrowed from various sources. It is important to foresee the future of these local inhabitants.

There is no reference to the recreational facilities both in terms of currently available and future potentials.

The role of existing and potential partners needs also to be highlighted.

It is also important to study the legislative requirements for the area anticipating the type of growth and considering the various problems faced by the developed cities.

It is essential to have a task force comprising representatives of all interested parties and stake-holders from both public as well private sectors.

This task force should be able to assess the needs, and set a direction for the master plan studies. It should be able to assess the potential impact of the recommendations and finally ensuring the conducive policies for future.

Let us not loose the opportunity of making Gwadar the most modern and livable city of the country.

The whole study is simply made on the basis of borrowed data and which in many cases will prove to be totally outdated. The requirement of the day is to obtain new and updated data through organized studies and surveys.

There was no inter-action whatsoever between the planners and with the large number of interested parties or stake-holders and even the local administration.