KARACHI: The multibillion-dollar Pakistan Deep Water Container Port (PDWCP) project is once again mired by the scourge of decades-old “underwater obstructions”, Pakistan Today has learnt. The wreckage of at least 10 ships sunk within port limits since 1972 are now hindering the Rs 19.28 billion dredging and reclamation works at the long-awaited PDWCP, valued at $1.087 billion.
To rectify the situation it is now considering awarding a variation order worth over Rs 500 million.
According to sources, at least 15,348 tonnes of wreckage are still in the environs of Karachi Port and pose a significant challenge to progress at, what analysts have dubbed, a massive but ill-planned project. According to details provided by concerned owners and shipping agents, the sunken ships include M/v Abasin, M/v Regal Sun, M/v Munir, M/v Nanda Devi, M/v Dynamic Venture, Aqua Marine, F.T East BEU 505, M/v Naran and Bakhtawar I&II.
Despite the passage of over three decades, some 38 years, the management of Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has not been able to clear the detritus in the harbour and prepare for future projects like PDWCP. “The consultants (Royal Haskoning and Techno-Consultant International) have informed the KPT chairperson that dredging work has been delayed due to the obstruction,” the sources claimed.
Time is running out for KPT in terms of its concession agreement with the HPH, the KPT has also locked horns with China Water and Electric (CWE), its contractor for Dredging and Reclamation works, over the removal of submerged obstacles. CWE is said to have told the KPT that the work was not covered under its contract for dredging and reclamation work and further effort would be implemented out through a variation order.
Now when the port operator is faced with no attractive alternatives, the KPT authorities are getting a contract worth at over Rs 500 million accomplished through back channels and not tendering the contract as dictated by standard procedure. “How can the KPT award a project of over Rs 500 million on the basis of negotiations and not proper tendering,” opined a source privy to the project.
The source was also question whether the KPT was technically and legally able to sanction such a large variation order. “They (KPT) must invite tenders for the removal of wreckage,” he stressed.
The sources disclosed that the KPT is in discussions with at least three companies, Sure Success Salvagers, Tand T Bisco and Euro Demolition BV, for the Rs 500 million contract. “The KPT may be violating PPRA (2004) rules while awarding such a big contract sans bidding,” the sources viewed. The sources claimed that from the very outset the KPT authorities have mismanaged the important project of obstacle clearance from the port area. They said “lack of supervision” on the part of KPT had further complicated the matter, with salvaging companies exploiting the profitable opportunity at will.
It is noteworthy here that the KPT had got from then Central Board of Revenue a one-time customs duty and tax holiday for successful salvage firms which were to earn their expenses through the sale of reclaimed wreckages.
“The KPT had invited tenders for the works in 2004 but due to lack of proper oversight, successful bidders have left the underwater work unfinished,” the sources noted. Sources informed Pakistan Today that salvage firms had pocketed handsome profits by removing only easily accessible wrecks lying on the surface of seabed while leaving the submerged ones.
PDWCP is under construction on public private partnership basis at Keamari Groyne at a mammoth cost of $1.087 billion, of which KPT’s share of investment stands at $450 million for infrastructure development, whereas the concessionaire HPH would be spending $557 million during Phase-I of the deeper-draught seaport.
