PM Abbasi opens $1.4b KPT container terminal

The port transforms Pakistan into a major regional hub, PM says

KARACHI: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi formally inaugurated the most advanced Deep Water Container Terminal in the region at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) on Friday.

The high-tech terminal was built at a cost of $1.4 billion

“The Deep Water Container Terminal has made Pakistan a major hub for regional countries,” he said, adding that the port would also connect Pakistan to the rest of the world.

The port had successfully handled four of world’s largest containerships during test operations on December 9, 2016.

It is capable of handling mother vessels having a loaded capacity of up to 18,000 20-foot containers, terminal officials reported earlier.

The port has a capacity of handling 3.1 million TEUs (Twenty Feet Equivalent Unit) per annum, higher than the previous capacity of all container terminals in the country of 2.5 million TEUs.

The terminal was named as Hutchison Ports Pakistan, which is a public-private partnership of Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Hong-Kong-based Hutchison Ports.

“The terminal will be a key component (of the) overall CPEC system, assisting and facilitating CPEC developments in Pakistan, which governments of both Pakistan and China are pursing vigorously,” Abbasi said.

Efficient ports, he said, were key component in the economic growth of any country. Karachi Port being the oldest, biggest and Pakistan’s premier port, had a special significance in the overall national economic activity, he said.

Elevated Expressway

The prime minister approved the multi-billion-rupee 10-kilometer-long Elevated Expressway project, connecting the container terminal via roads to upcountry and the Central Asian region, Afghanistan and western China.

“We will finance this project from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP),” he said.

He was accompanied by Minister of Maritime Affairs Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo on this occasion.

The prime minister said that the project was crucial for improving the container terminal’s connectivity with other ports and upcountry cities.

He also urged authorities concerned to improve KPT connectivity via railways too.

“I have been told by the Chairman of KPT that presently just two per cent of the cargo is being transported through railways whereas up to 40 per cent of goods are transferred through railways in neighbouring countries,” he said.

KPT bonus

Assuring KPT employees that their issues would be resolved on a priority basis, the prime minister announced a bonus equaling one-month salary to all workers on the successful launch of the Hutchison Port Pakistan.

He said that he was announcing this in the presence of Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.

Besides, the port would also include KPT’s integrated power project, encompassing an LNG terminal, along with four 600-megawatt power plants and a desalination plant capable of producing over 50 million gallons of clean water.

Elections ‘on time’

Prime Minister Abbasi said that the incumbent government was near to becoming the second government in the country’s history to complete its five-year tenure.

“This democratic process will continue in the future too,” he said.

Dismissing rumours about a possible delay in polls, he said that the elections would be held on time.

He said: “Judicial activism is there …All state institutions must work within their Constitutional domains.”

Appreciating the incumbent government’s initiative, he said that it had taken up and completed several major projects.

“We have finished some mega projects in five years which remained incomplete over the past 65 years,” he said.