A temporary dry port was set up at the premises of Peshawar cantonment railway station in 1986 to promote trade and industry in the NWFP.
Three small warehouses of Pakistan Railway were annexed to the dry port to accommodate the quantum of incoming and outgoing goods from the railway station. But these warehouses were not commodious enough to provide storage to the increasing volume of exports and import.
The existing facility can meet only the requirement of Afghan Transit Trade. Ever since the opening of this temporary dry port the successive government promised to provide a new dry port equipped with all the modern facilities. Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi, the then Chief Minister of Frontier Province acquired 64 acres of land near Azakhel Railway Station 25 kilometer East of Peshawar for the construction of dry port and announced a grant of 20 millions rupees for the project.
But ironically, this vital project was shelved after the sacking of Nawaz Sharif Government. The MMA Government in the province took keen interest in the project and the Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani took up the matter with the Federal Government but it could not materialise because the apathy of rulers in Islamabad.
To remove the bottlenecks hindering the implementation Peshawar dry port Project, a delegation of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry meet with the then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in 2007. The Prime Minister announced a grant of Rs 2.70 million and directed the secretary commerce to go ahead with project. But the PML (Q) Government like its successor also failed to fulfill the long standing demand of businessmen of NWFP.
There is no denying to the fact that the volume of trade through Peshawar dry port has increased manifold over the past few years. The lack of proper storage and other necessary facilities are hampering trading activities. Besides, the building of dry port is almost in a dilapidated condition.
To bring some improvement and alteration in the existing structure, Sarhad Chamber of Commence and Industry succeeded in getting a sanction for the grant of Rs 2.5 million from the Export Promotion Bureau to construct the examination hall and a merchant room.
But the available funds were not utilised for the improvement and much needed expansion of the dry port. Apart from the minor addition and alteration the construction of new shed is also inevitable. At present the containers of goods and raw material have to be dumped in the open area adjacent to the dry port, which is not a safe place for the temporary storage of goods and raw material.
A piece of railway land is available in the same location where a shed can be constructed for the downloading and uploading of containers. Likewise, offices for custom official and clearance agent can also be established there besides installation of necessary equipment's like computerised scaling, weighing and handling of exportable goods.
The dry port lack proper drainage system and the rain water most often damage the export items like honey, carpets and handicrafts. As per the standing procedure the raw material imported for the industries located in NWFP have to be transported directly from Karachi to Peshawar dry port by railway wagons for release to the respective industrial estates.
But the raw material after arrival at Karachi Sea port is transported by private trucks to bonded warehouses of various industries of the Province due to the lack of one window operation at Peshawar dry port.
The goods trains from Peshawar reach Karachi very late due to their long stay at different railway stations and most often the export goods could not be loaded on ships in the Sea port.
Likewise, the wagons of goods trains remain stranded in Karachi Marshalling yard and the delay in the arrival of raw material badly affects the productivity in various industries of the Frontier Province. The problem can be easily overcome by running special cargo containers train service twice a week between Karachi and Peshawar.
The dry port at Mughal Pura Railway Station in Lahore provides all the facilities for export to India but the exporter of NWFP are not allowed to directly export goods from Peshawar dry port.
Peshawar is a gateway for trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian republics. But the ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan has deprived Pakistan to export the full potential of Central Asian market. However, a time will come that peace will return to Afghanistan and Peshawar will become a vibrant center of foreign trade.
To capture the export market in this region a full fledged Dry port will be needed in Peshawar for which the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has already submitted a feasibility report to the consult quarter. It is high time that Azakhel Dry port Project is revived and implemented without further delay to cater to the increasing demands of imports and exports.
Comments
Comments are closed.