KARACHI: The government is keen to make functional the Gwadar Port. In this regard government has formulated a plan to import wheat and fertilizers and export cement from Gwadar Port.
Gwadar Port would receive four ships carrying urea imported from Ukraine.
Trading Corporation of Pakistan is importing fertilizers from Ukraine.
The four ships carrying urea will reach Gwadar Port this month. The first ship MV Eastern carrying 20,000 tonnes of fertilizers will reach Gwadar from Ukraine on December 13, The News has learnt.
Another Ship MV BARRA containing 30,000 tonnes of urea fertilizers will reach Gwadar Port on December 20.
Two more ships MV Moon 1 and MV Virginia will be arriving at Gwadar Port on December 22 and on December 24 containing 24,000 tonnes and 30,000 tonnes respectively. Government has said that special facilities will be provided to the transporters who will take part in shipment operation of the fertiliser from Gwadar to across the country.
The government has decided to use Gwadar as export point for cement so that the transporters do not have to go all the way to Gwadar with empty trucks, which would add to their overhead expenses
From Gwadar imports will be transported to the other parts of the country and government in this regard has taken the decision that cement will be exported from Gwadar Port not only to operate Gwadar Port but also to facilitate transporters so that the do not take their empty trucks to Gwadar for loading imports. Government has assured that full support and cooperation will be given to the transporters.
It is expected that the Minister of State for Ports and Shipping Sardar Nabeel Gabol will welcome the first ship, which will arrive at Gawadar Port.
the news
Usman replied on Thursday, December 4, 2008 08:07 PM
Using Gwader port to import fertilizers and wheat is rather expensive way of doing business. Once un-loaded at Gwader, it will have to be transported back to Karachi using costal highway to deliver to the rest of country, costal high is the only major highway connecting Gwader to rest of country. So what is the point of using Gwader port for this kind of stuff? Fertilizer and wheat could have been easily imported using Karachi port which would be a lot less costly.
The best use of Gwader port is to follow Dubai port model and make it a free port with a fixed port-fee, around 3%. This will give business community an alternative to Dubai port that do business in gulf. |
