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The Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) has secured 750 acres of land for the second phase of the East Bay Expressway, moving forward a road project whose mandate is simple but consequential: a direct six-lane link between Gwadar’s underused new international airport and its port. The land acquisition, carried out under the Gwadar Master Plan, took effect in mid-August 2026, according to The Daily CPEC — more than a year after the project was first referred to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) and roughly 13 months after a Pakistani newspaper described it as being “in the doldrums.”
What GDA Has Just Completed
The 750 acres cleared for the project were acquired specifically for the 13.8-kilometre Eastbay Expressway Phase II, which will run from New Gwadar International Airport to the existing East Bay Expressway, completing an unbroken six-lane corridor from the airport straight through to Gwadar Port. Neither GDA nor the reporting on the acquisition has published a compensation figure, a list of affected landholders, or a construction start date. The federal government has allocated Rs200 million for the project under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2026-27, a routine planning-stage allocation rather than a construction budget.
A Project That Has Spent a Year Moving in Slow Motion
Phase II has been on the drawing board since at least 2023, when Pakistani officials first floated extending the original expressway to the newly built airport. Its PC-I planning document cleared the Central Development Working Party, and the project was referred to ECNEC for final approval in June 2025, according to Daily Times reporting on that year’s federal budget allocations for Gwadar. Approval followed roughly two months later: Pakistani and Chinese officials signed off on construction during the 8th Joint Working Group meeting on Gwadar, reported in the second week of August 2025.
That approval did not immediately translate into visible progress. A Geo News analysis published in February 2026 described Eastbay Expressway Phase II as stalled and “in the doldrums,” contrasting it with the original expressway, which the same piece said was “serving commercial traffic efficiently” four years after opening. The August 2026 land acquisition is the clearest sign since last year’s approval that the project has moved from paperwork toward an actual construction footprint, though it stops well short of confirming that building work has begun.
What Phase II Actually Involves
The new stretch is designed as a six-lane dual carriageway, with four lanes to be paved initially, running 13.8 kilometres between the airport and the existing expressway. Its estimated cost is Rs30.13 billion, with 95 percent of that financed through Chinese grant-in-aid under CPEC and the remainder covered by the federal government. China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), the contractor behind large sections of Gwadar’s port-side infrastructure, is named as the executing contractor. The design includes a toll plaza, drainage works, lighting and security towers — broadly mirroring the specifications of the first phase.
The airport end of that link has had its own uneven rollout. A second airline began flying into New Gwadar International Airport only gradually after its opening, and fares to Karachi and Quetta were cut by as much as Rs10,000 earlier this year in what officials described as an effort to build up passenger demand. A finished road link to the port would give the roughly $240 million airport a second reason for existing beyond passenger traffic: moving air freight and personnel directly to Gwadar’s berths without routing through the city’s older streets.
Why the First Phase Still Matters
The original East Bay Expressway offers a template for what officials hope Phase II will repeat. That 19.5-kilometre, six-lane road was built under CPEC’s Early Harvest scheme at a cost of roughly Rs32 billion, part of a wider Rs170.667 billion development package for the port city. Construction began in November 2017 and the road opened to traffic in June 2022, connecting Gwadar Port directly to the Makran Coastal Highway and, through it, to Karachi. Industry commentary has credited the expressway with improving the port and free zone’s trading potential by giving cargo a direct route in and out of the city, rather than funnelling it through congested urban roads.
That existing link is now carrying part of the load from the surge in transit cargo Gwadar has handled since the Strait of Hormuz crisis began in February 2026, when ships and cargo owners started routing goods through Gwadar’s road corridor to Iran and Central Asia rather than through the contested strait. A completed Phase II would extend that logistics network to the airport, theoretically letting freight move between the two facilities without leaving expressway-grade road for city streets.
A Pattern Balochistan’s Infrastructure Keeps Repeating
Phase II’s slow path from PC-I to ECNEC referral to JWG approval to land acquisition is not unusual for major projects in the province. The M-8 motorway, the 893-kilometre corridor meant to eventually link Gwadar to Ratodero and onward toward the Chinese border, has faced far more severe delays over more than a decade of construction; the February 2026 Geo News analysis noted that multiple contractors, including a Chinese firm, withdrew from the project after security incidents, leaving only a roughly 200-kilometre section under construction by the Frontier Works Organisation. Balochistan’s Public Accounts Committee has separately ordered action against former engineers over how a different set of Gwadar infrastructure funds were spent, and the sister-port framework Pakistan is negotiating with Oman’s Sohar Port has moved forward on a similarly gradual, announcement-by-announcement timeline. Officials describe each of these projects as advancing; independent reporting has just as often described them as stalled, underfunded or slower than officially projected.
What Happens Next
GDA has not announced a construction start date for Eastbay Expressway Phase II following the land acquisition, and no contractor mobilisation has been publicly confirmed. The Rs200 million allocated under PSDP 2026-27 is a fraction of the Rs30.13 billion total project cost, suggesting substantial additional funding releases will be needed before construction can proceed at scale. Gwadar Post will follow up as GDA, the Ministry of Planning and CHEC report further progress on design finalisation, contractor mobilisation and construction timelines.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Gwadar Development Authority just announce about East Bay Expressway Phase II?
In mid-August 2026, GDA completed acquisition of 750 acres of land under the Gwadar Master Plan for the 13.8-kilometre East Bay Expressway Phase II, which will connect New Gwadar International Airport to the existing expressway and, through it, to Gwadar Port.
How much will Eastbay Expressway Phase II cost, and who is funding it?
The project is estimated at Rs30.13 billion, with 95 percent financed through Chinese grant-in-aid under CPEC and the remainder from the federal government. China Harbour Engineering Company is the named contractor.
Why has the project taken so long to advance?
Its PC-I was referred to ECNEC in June 2025 and approved during the 8th CPEC Joint Working Group meeting on Gwadar in August 2025, but a February 2026 analysis described the project as stalled in the months that followed. The August 2026 land acquisition is the first concrete sign of movement since that approval.
How does this relate to the original East Bay Expressway?
The first phase, a 19.5-kilometre six-lane road built for about Rs32 billion under CPEC’s Early Harvest scheme, opened in June 2022 and already connects Gwadar Port to the Makran Coastal Highway. Phase II would extend that same road standard from the port side to the airport.
Has construction actually started?
No construction start date has been announced. Only land acquisition has been confirmed as of this report, and the Rs200 million allocated for the project in the 2026-27 federal budget is far short of its Rs30.13 billion total cost.
Sources
- The Daily CPEC: “750 Acres Secured for Gwadar Eastbay Phase II”
- The Nation: “Construction of Gwadar Eastbay Expressway Phase-II approved”
- Daily Times: “Govt allocates over Rs13bn for key Gwadar projects”
- Geo News: “Can CPEC’s promise endure amid Gwadar’s quiet stalls and unfinished roads?”
- Wikipedia: “Gwadar Eastbay Expressway”
- Rafi Group: “Significance of Gwadar Eastbay Expressway”