Port Qasim grain terminal project nearing completion

Karachi: The work on the country's first dedicated grain and fertiliser terminal, to be built at Port Qasim at an estimated cost of $78 million, would be started sometime in March 2008.

The construction work at the terminal, under the government's National Trade Corridor Improvement Programme, should be started within 180 days of the signing of the implementation agreement, official sources in the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) told Business Recorder on Thursday.

It may be recalled that in the presence of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz an implementation agreement was signed between the PQA and a Consortium of Fauji Foundation, Akbar Group and Portia Management Services, UK, on September 3, 2007 in the federal capital for construction of a modern grain and fertiliser terminal at Port Qasim.

'The consortium needs to start physical activity at the PQ within 180 days of the signing of agreement, but it would take almost six months to start the work', they added. On funding of the project, the sources said that $39 million or 50 percent would be contributed by the Fauji Foundation, $35.10 million (45 percent) by the Portia Management Services, UK, and $3.9 million (5 percent) by the Akbar Group $78 million.

They said the terminal would be built on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis and all its assets would be transferred to the Authority on the completion of the 30-year agreement period. On a deadline for completion of the terminal, which is a private sector project, the sources said the dedicated facility would be built in a period of 30 months.

They estimated the earning of the PQA at $123 million during the 30-year period from the terminal, which would have the capacity to handle four million tonnes of cargo annually.

Sources, however, said to start work on the project was a lengthy process as conducting environmental and other physical surveys, taking no objection certificates (NOCs) from the naval headquarters and other related bodies and doing a detailed design work taking care of all feasibility's was a time-consuming process.

When asked once completed what difference the terminal would make, the sources said that besides reducing the freight charges the state-of-the-art facility would also help facilitate the storage, export and import of grain at the Port Qasim.