Jinnah Naval Base ( ur, ) is a strategic

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that u ...

of the Pakistan Navy located at

Ormara Ormara ( Balochi, ur, ), is a town in Gwadar District in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. It is a port on the Makran coastal region. It is located west of Karachi and east of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. This port is also mentioned in ' ...

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. It is named after Pakistan's founder,

Mohammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mono ...

. It is Pakistan's second largest naval base.

Location

Jinnah Naval Base is situated about 240 km west (149 miles) of

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

at Ormara in Pakistan's Balochistan province. By land, via the

Makran Coastal Highway The N-10 or National Highway 10 (Urdu: ) is a 653 km national highway in Pakistan which extends along Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast from Karachi in Sindh province to Gwadar in Balochistan province. It passes the towns of Ormara and Pasni. ...

it is 350 km (217.48 miles) from Karachi and 285 km from

Gwadar Gwadar ( Balochi/ ur, ) is a port city with located on the southwestern coast of Balochistan, Pakistan. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea opposite Oman. Gwadar is the 100th largest city of Pakistan, according to the 2017 ...

Construction history

The Ministry of Defence approved the proposal of constructing of the naval base away from the maritime boundaries of India, and initially awarded the contract to two

European countries The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the regions of Europe, various common definitions of Europe, geographical or political. Fifty generally recognised sovereign states, Kosovo with limited, but substantial, ...

–

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

– with the ground breaking ceremony taking place on 17 March 1994. The project was aimed towards spending ₨. 4.5 Bn (500 Mn.

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

), and the contract was awarded to Turkish firms, STFA Group and STM, Belgium firm,

Jan De Nul Jan De Nul Group is a Belgian family-owned company, with the financial headquarters in Luxembourg, that provides services relating to the construction and maintenance of maritime infrastructure on an international basis. Its main focus is dredging ...

, and Pakistani firms, FWO and MES. The project was timelined for a naval base to be operational by March 1997. On 22 June 2000, the Jinnah Naval Base was inaugurated by then-

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Gen.

Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...

in a ceremony attended by Faruk Bal, the Turkish Minister of State, and V-Adm. Taj Muhammad. Gen. Musharraf had termed the opening of the base as a long-standing requirement of the Pakistan Navy and had become a reality after many years of hard work. Work on selection of the site for the Jinnah Naval Base commenced in 1990. The contract was awarded to Turkish company

STFA STFA Group is one of Turkey’s rooted conglomerates providing services in the construction, energy distribution, construction equipment and construction chemicals. Founded in 1938 by pioneering contractors Sezai Türkeş and Feyzi Akkaya, STFA ...

and

for offshore and land development in December 1992. Construction of the Base began in 1994 and the Base was inaugurated on 22 January 2000 by General

. The Base was constructed at a cost of Rs. 4.5 billion.

Salient features

Jinnah Naval Base can provide berthing facilities to eight

warships A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster an ...

and four submarines at a time. This facility can be expanded in future with the expansion of the Base. The Base is currently in the process of modernization to meet Pakistan's increasing defence needs. To develop future naval officers, Cadet College Ormara has been established.

Submarine base

In April 2014, Pakistan Navy announced that it is in the process of shifting primary operations and naval assets, including its entire fleet of diesel-electric submarines (SSKs), from

to the Jinnah Naval Base in Ormara.Pakistan Navy to shift submarines from Karachi to Ormara
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References

{{reflist Pakistan Navy bases Military installations in Balochistan, Pakistan Pakistan Navy submarine bases Memorials to Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Location

Construction history

Salient features

Submarine base

See also

References