A lot has been promised to Gwadar. Ports, highways, game changing plans and glossy presentations are all gone and ordinary citizens have gone on to measure progress in more primitive ways. Is it a passable road after it rains. Does drainage work. Can you get to work on time. Do public spaces feel safe. Do projects get done as they are due.

This is the reason as to why a hands-on account of the Director General of the Gwadar Development Authority is important not because inspections are not a common thing, but because the nature of an inspection is a precursor of what is to be expected. It was not a photo stop visit. It was a challenging scrutiny of the never-ending work, the work quality performed and working performance being adhered by contractors and engineers were performing as per the time schedules that had already been approved. The project officials and the senior engineers were taken there to ensure the close coordination and the possibility of the common excuse that the file is at another location.

The final attraction was the Marine drive causeway in the Plerry Kor Hor. A causeway is not an item of concrete. It is a lifeline to a seaport city. The collapse of it severing communities, it slows emergency affairs and the credibility that the city has in their public works is lost within a limited time. It is this kind of thinking that is needed in Gwadar due to the focus on the resilient design in........

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