Gwadar Port to get operational with wheat arrival

[LRE]

Gwadar Port to get operational with wheat arrival



By By Aftab Maken
8/22/2008
ISLAMABAD: The government’s decision to receive imported wheat at the Gwadar Port is aimed at making the port operational and introducing it on international shipping and trade forums.

This will reduce dependency on existing two major ports, Port Qasim and Karachi Port, where larger vessels cannot be handled, and will also provide an alternative source for docking, an official requesting not to be named told The News on Thursday.

“Tremendous economic activities will be generated when the vessel carrying 50,000-60,000 tonnes of cargo dock at the port and then about more than 2,000 trucks will be used to transport the imported commodity to upcountry,” said the same official, adding that it would also reduce cost and freight charges of handling the imported commodity.

Offloading of ships carrying imported grain on Gwadar Port would spur the local business and trade including that of hotels and restaurants. Moreover, the local labour would get employment and if the trend continues, the shipping activities at Gwadar Port would help in defeating poverty and other miseries of the Baloch people, they hoped.

To this effect, the government will allow one third of the imported wheat to be offloaded at Gwadar Port for curtailing the cost of importing the commodity, sources in the MINFAL confirmed to The News about berthing of ships at Gwadar port.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet in its meeting on next Tuesday (August 26) will deliberate on the issue as Balochistan Chief Minister, Nawab Aslam Raisani in a meeting with MINFAL requested it to offload some of ships carrying the imported grain at Gwadar Port for the betterment of the people of the province.

The chief minister further asked the MINFAL that it should issue separate wheat import tenders particularly mentioning Gwadar Port as the port of destination, this would generate revenue for alleviating the miseries and economic woes of the people of the province.

The ECC of the cabinet in its last meeting directed MINFAL to have reasonable quantity of the imported wheat shipped to Gwadar Port but the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has so far accepted bids destined either for Port Qasim or Karachi Port.

In last year’s wheat imports of 1.73 million tonnes, only one ship with 75,000 tonnes of commodity docked at Gwadar Port, but it was not properly handled and the cost of imported wheat increased manifold.

“We are recommending the ECC to allow one third of the total imported wheat to be offloaded at Gwadar port as it would help the importing agencies to cut cost and freight,” said an official of the MINFAL.

The TCP has so far booked 1.601 million tonnes of red wheat and four ships carrying 160,000 tonnes of wheat have unloaded the imported quantity either at Port Qasim or Karachi Port and the rest of the shipments too are booked for both ports but not for Gwadar Port.

The TCP last year booked imported grain in haste and all the ships carrying imported wheat reached the ports one after the other resulting in non availability of berths at ports to unload the commodity. This caused ships to wait beyond their scheduled time resulting in demurrage claims that TCP paid from the national exchequer, sources in the shipping ministry told this correspondent.

To avoid last year’s crowding at the port, the MINFAL is also recommending the ECC to divert one third of the ships carrying imported grain to be docked at Gwadar port, MINFAL official said.

As the port located in wheat deficit area, so the imported grain could also be awarded to the province to meet its domestic requirement while the remaining would be transported through rail to the rest of the country, he added.

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