KARACHI – The country’s first state-of-the-art fertiliser, grain and storage terminal has been shut down for an indefinite period at Port Qasim. The dedicated Fertiliser and Grain Terminal (FGT) was recently developed on BOT basis by a joint investment venture comprising Fauji Akbar Portia (FAP), Fauji Foundation and National Bank of Pakistan at a cost of $135 million (Rs 10 billion) at Port Qasim and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in October 2010.
The facility, with a daily 5,000 tonnes cargo handling capacity and 0.12 million tonnes storage facility, could never function smoothly due to intermittent protests and demonstrations carried out by the dock workers demanding job at the terminal. The terminal operator, FAP, could never respond positively to the demands contending that no manual work was required at the fully-automated facility.
According to sources at Port Qasim, the FAP has shut down the terminal since Tuesday’s violence at the port that left dozens of FAP employees injured and suspended cargo handling at the terminal. On Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of, what FAP officials said, “employees of the stevedoring companies” entered the limits of the FGT, roughed up the on-duty laborers and tried to ransack the cargo handling equipment.
“The terminal has been shut down and would remain so until the matter is resolved once and for all,” the sources privy to the port told Pakistan Today. If closed down, the two rice and wheat vessels that are presently berthed at the FGT are likely to be shifted to the Marginal Wharf of the PQA. The sources said that final decision, subject to approval of the FAP’s Board of Directors, the terminal operator were all set to announce complete closure of the Rs 10 billion time-efficient facility during a press conference scheduled to be held at FAP office here on Thursday.
The sources said the FAP was weighing various options including the legal ones to determine its future course of action. “Negotiations are also underway with the Port Qasim Authority as FAP wants an assurance that such Tuesday-like happenings would not recur,” the sources added. They said that FAP had also started consolations with its legal advisors to see what legal options were available at its disposal.
Dozens of dock workers were reportedly injured on Tuesday after Rangers opened fire and used tear gas shells to disperse the enraged protesters, who had entered the terminal. The dedicated dry bulk cargo terminal was developed by FAP in a short span of 24 months and was envisaged to help the funds-starved government save billions, at least Rs 6.0 billion, annually on account of logistics cost.
The terminal, using its modern US- and Belgium-made cargo handling tools like steel silos, a dedicated jetty and other automated equipment, indeed revolutionised the pace of cargo handling in the country’s ports and shipping industry that recently saw the facility breaking all previous records by discharging 16,500 tonnes of oilseed in a single day.
