The Board of Trustees of Sheikhpura Dry Port Trust (SDPT) on Saturday unanimously elected Shahzada Alam Monnoo as SDPT Chairman. The Board of Trustees meeting also co-opted three new members of Sheikhupura Dry Port Trust including Shahzad Ali, of Euro Guard (Pvt) Ltd, Waqar Ahmad, of Mian Tractors and Traders, and Maqsood Butt, of Aruj Garments, while it unanimously nominated Noor Hussain Sahi as SDPT Secretary.
The Board of Trustees, under the Chairmanship of Shahzada Alam Monnoo, discussed in detail the need to limit the term of the chairman and it was decided to fix three years as term of the chairman. The Board also elected Shahzad Ali as co-chairman of the Trust.
After the election, the Chairman delegated his powers as Chairman to the Co-Chairman to look after the working of the Dry Port Trust. In order to achieve the key objectives of the Trust, the Board members discussed the need to extend its membership and it was unanimously decided that the new members will be selected from leading exporters and importers from the catchment area of Sheikhupura Dry Port.
SDPT co-chairman Shahzad said that the sole objective of having another dry port at Chichukimalian in Sheikhupura district was to make the trade and industry competitive by reducing delivery time and cost. He said that the project was well on way and it would be a fully equipped, state-of-the-art dry port, ensuring cost-effective and efficient logistic solutions to promote economic activities in the region. He said that the successful models of private sector-managed dry port already exist in the shape of Faisalabad Dry Port and Sialkot Dry Port.
He told the trustees that Faisalabad Dry Port has a capacity to handle 33,000 export cargo containers while Sheikhupura Dry Port can handle 5500 import consignments per annum, valued at over Rs 80 billion. Same way, he said, Sialkot Dry Port can handle up to 29,000 export cargo containers worth over Rs 46 billion.