Gadani

Gadani
Town and union council
Country Pakistan
Region Balochistan
District Lasbela District
Population
 • Total 10,000
Time zone PST (UTC+5)

Gadani is a coastal village of Lasbela District located in the southern part of Balochistan along the Arabian Sea, Pakistan. It is also a Union Council of Hub Tehsil[1] and is just a 1-hour drive away from Karachi, Sindh. The population of Gadani was estimated to be around 10,000 in 2005. More than 97% of the population is Muslim with a small Hindu minority. The majority of population speaks Balochi and there is a small Sindhi speaking minority. In Gadani majority of the population speaks a language named Balochi, this language is derived from Iran. They belong to Sanghur, Kurd, Sajdi, Muhammad Hasni, and Bezinjo tribes.

Many prehistoric shell-midden sites were discovered along the shores of a small bay, near Gadani. They are characterized of heaps of fragments of marine and mangrove shells among which are flint and jasper tools and stone querns. The first radiocarbon dates obtained from these middens indicate they result from the activity of people who settled along the coast both during the seventh and the fifth millennium before present.

Gadani Energy Park is an ambitious project of the new Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Government (announced in August 2013) to establish 10 coal power plants of total capacity of 6,600 MW with technical and financial assistance from China. This will help in reducing the chronic power shortage problems being faced by Pakistan.[2]

Gadani Ship Breaking Yard

The world's third largest ship breaking yard, Gadani ship-breaking yard is located in Gadani. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots located across a 10 km long beachfront at Gadani, Pakistan, about 50 kilometres northwest of Karachi.

In 1980s, Gadani was the largest ship-breaking yard in the world, with more than 30,000 direct employees. However, competition from newer facilities in Alang, India and Chittagong, Bangladesh resulted in a significant reduction in output, with Gadani, today, producing less than one fifth of the scrap it produced in the 1980s. The recent reduction in taxes on scrap metal has led to a modest resurgence of output at Gadani, which now employs around 6,000 workers.

Over 1 million tons of steel is salvaged per year, and much of it is sold domestically. In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, a record 107 ships, with a combined light displacement tonnage (LDT) of 852,022 tons, were broken at Gadani whereas in the previous 2008-2009 fiscal year, 86 ships, with a combined LDT of 778,598 tons, were turned into scrap.

It currently has an annual capacity of breaking up to 125 ships of all sizes, including supertankers, with a combined LDT of 1,000,000 tons.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tehsils & Unions in the District of Lasbella - Government of Pakistan
  2. ↑ "Government to develop 6,600 MW Gaddani energy park: Ahsan". News. Pakistan Muslim League. 6 September 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2014.

Coordinates: 25°07′10″N 66°43′55″E / 25.11944°N 66.73194°E / 25.11944; 66.73194

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