KARACHI – Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has pushed forward with the internal development of port facilities and has diverted resources to rehabilitate existing general cargo berths in the East Wharf. Simultaneously, it has invested heavily in the Deep Water Container port project, thus bearing the expenditure of building up both facilities.
This act of the KPT management is questionable, given that considerable resources are being committed to the internal development of the port area and apparently unnecessary extension to the Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT). At the same time, there is a concerted effort to establish a deep water port. This decision has been taken, despite the fact that the organisation is firmly committed to the Deep Water Container Port (PDWCP) project worth close to $1.0 billion.
It is pertinent to mention that containers berths in Pakistan are oversupplied, while there is a dearth of general cargo berths. The rehabilitation of KPT facilities entails that existing berths will be demolished and then reconstructed. The KPT chairperson through devoting scarce resources on the internal development of the port and the expansion of private terminals is neglecting the development of road connections for PDWCP.
This is a critical factor in the viability of the project. Maritime experts believe that the connectivity infrastructure is lacking in the project despite a potential daily traffic of a 100,000 containers once offloaded on the port. There is seemingly no serious plan in place to improve the road network and other infrastructure vital to the success of PDWCP. ‘Learning from the Gwadar Port experience, the government should contribute more in basic infrastructure development, rather than depending on private companies to invest themselves.
The construction of Bandra-Worli cable Stay Bridge in Mumbai is the best example to show the critical significance of an improvement in the road connection system,’ they said. When contacted, the official spokesperson of KPT said no conversion of general cargo berths into containers berths has ever been planned by the administration and only rehabilitation of general cargo berths is being carried out.
