Pakistan Deep Water Container Port: KPT Board dissatisfied with $1.6 billion project

The newly reconstituted board of Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has expressed strong reservations over the feasibility of the $1.6 billion Pakistan Deep Water Container Port (PDWCP) project, Business Recorder learnt on Thursday.
According to sources a majority of the board members, at its August 13 meeting at KPT Headquarters, have observed that the mega project, which is envisaged as a transhipment hub catering to the needs of the 6th and 7th generation container ships, was lacking a "proper hydraulic study".
"The Board could not develop consensus on the feasibility of the proposed port and has asked KPT to arrange a detailed presentation of the consultants (M/S Royal Hoskonigs) and China International Water & Electric (CWE) in the next meeting," they added. KPT has tasked CWE to conduct capital dredging for the project.
The 10-member Board also observed that the KPT's flagship project, which involves dredging and reclamation volumes of more than 34 million cubic meters (mcm), was yet to got a clearance from the environmental organisations, like Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (PEPA), the sources added.
"The board has also asked for details on the repercussion of infill or siltation (present annual ratio of which stands at around 1.5 to 2 mcm) after carrying out capital dredging for the project," they said.
The project, the sources said, was forwarded to the Board after being approved by the Departmental Tender Committee (DTC) and Board Tender Committee (BTC) last week.
They said the project consultants, M/S Royal Hoskonigs, had already declared location for the establishment of the proposed port, which involves construction of 10 deep draught berths of 18 meter depth with 5,000 meters of quay wall at Keamari Groyne, as "wrong" in its first presentation last year to the then KPT Chairman Vice Admiral Ahmed Hayat.
M/S Royal had observed that water current, wind and sea waves at the proposed breakwaters were so high that a 70-tonnes pusher tug could not prevent a skidding of a new generation vessel carrying at least 8,000 TEUs from facing an accident in case of engine failure, the sources said.
They claimed that the former chairman had, however, ordered the consultants "to make it happen" at any cost on which the latter had asked the KPT to make a new breakwater at the proposed site. Making a new breakwater, the sources said, would almost double the cost of project.
The sources said a feasibility study by M/s H.R Wallingford, consultants for Deepening of Channel project, had proposed "Manora Island" as the best location for PDWCP. They said the study had argued that due to its geographical proximity to the proposed Cargo Village a port at Manora Island would help KPT save billions of rupees it was planning to invest on the construction of Port Bridge for hinterland connectivity.
Further, this would also help the profit-loving KPT to pay less money in terms of capital dredging as the proposed site (spreading over Sector I, II and III), and would require only 5 to 6 meters dredging as compared to Keamari Groyne where it would have to dredge a "hard soil" from the zero, the sources said. The quantity of dredging would also be reduced to almost half at the Manora site, they added. "The more dredging KPT undertakes the more increase it would have in the annual ratio of siltation at its port, which would ultimately lead to increase in its dredging activity and cost," said the sources.
KPT's former Deputy Conservator Noman Alvi had also rejected location of the proposed port as incorrect at Keamari Groyne near Sector I-II, the point where M/v Tasman Spirit and a rice ship M/v Emen had faced an unfortunate fate in the past, claimed the sources.