The linking of Karachi Port with India through the Khokhrapar-Monabao rai1 link, scheduled to be reopened later this year, would result in $2 billion bilateral trade between the two countries.
"Currently, the official trade between India and Pakistan as mere dollars 600 million, while the unofficial trade via Dubai is at least dollars 1.5 billion, said a news report by Press Trust of India received here from Mumbai.
Once the Munabao-Khokhrapar rail link is established, the official trade would jump to at least dollars two billion initially, followed with an annual growth of 25 per cent," Pakistan Ships Agents Association honorary secretary Mohammed A Rajpar quoted as saying in Mumbai.
"We could export our surplus agro products like sugar, along with finished textile goods and raw hides for the Indian leather industry. While we could import engineering goods, machinery, automobile parts, pharmaceuticals, livestock amongst others," Rajpar added.
At present, the only official road link between the two neighbours is through Wagah. But with the Karachi port having a direct link with the Munabao-Khokhrapar rail line, more trade routes would open up.
"This route makes sense for better trade between the two countries," said the report quoting Karachi Port Trust chairman Vice Admiral Ahmad Hayat as having said.
"Some of the major markets for Pakistan are in north-west India. With the Karachi port being connected with this new rail link, the entire cargo meant for India can be brought directly from the port and loaded into the trains, which can be then taken to the market through trucks," Hayat added.
With the reopening of this route in December, it would benefit India also, as it won't have to send its Pakistan bound cargo all the way from Mumbai port to Dubai and then Karachi. This would reduce India's freight charges by 10 to 12 per cent," he observed.
According to Hayat, this would also indirectly benefit Mumbai port. "Due to increase in trade, the cargo traffic from Mumbai port has shot up. This has led to congestion. The cargoes endlessly wait on the port to get evacuated. Due to this, it has to pay around dollars 3,000 per day as demurrage."
"Now the cargo for north Indian destinations can be evacuated in Karachi and sent to its respective destinations," he said.
Since the load on Karachi and Qasim port is low comparatively to India, it can take the pressure off the Mumbai port, while the goods will reach the market in time, at low cost," Karachi Port Trust General Manager Syed Jamshed Zaidi added.
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