KARACHI, Jan 10: Chinese engineers are currently preparing a master plan for the Gwadar Port and after signing a contract with them on infrastructure development, the ground-breaking ceremony of the Rs1.2 billion port will be held on March 23.

This was disclosed by Minister for Communications and Railways, Javed Ashraf Qazi in a meeting with members of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) here at the Federation House on Thursday.

He said the ground-breaking ceremony was to be held in December but was postponed due to September 11 tragedy as many Chinese workers as well as other foreigners had left the country. They have now returned.

He said the Gwadar Port would provide the shortest possible access to the landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics and Pakistan would immensely gain from the project.

He urged the traders to approach the Balochistan government for associating the private sector in the development of free trade area at Gwadar.

On trade related problems, he said the shipping companies had reduced the war risk levy (WRL) by 50 per cent. He asked the business community to contact the CBR and Finance Ministry as shipping companies and their agents are still charging exorbitant freight rates.

On port surcharge, the minister agreed that it is not justified. He assured the gathering these charges are under review, but he did not agree with the proposal of the FPCCI in this regard.

He also gave a detailed presentation on railways, port and shipping, National Highway Authority (NHA) and Postal Service, saying that over-staffing, corruption, mal-administration, political involvement and favouritism had destroyed these public sector organizations.

The balance sheet of Pakistan Railways had been in red for two years as its overdraft with the State Bank surged to Rs20 billion, which had plunged to Rs300 million last year. The gap between revenue and expenditure has now dropped to Rs700 million from Rs2.6 billion. In the last five months, PR has achieved a surplus of Rs210 million. There was 23,000 ghost pensioners and the Railways had to pay Rs183 million every year.

“Railways will come out of the woods by 2004-2005 and become self-sufficient due to recent reforms,” he said.

On KPT, he said the staff strength was reduced to 8,900 from 10,300 and it made a profit of Rs2.4 billion in 2000-2001. He said the KPT, under the new chief, would launch new projects by June 2002, including deepening of channel to 13.5 metre depth.

In PNSC, around 4,000 extra staffers and workers were sent home. Out of 16 ships, including an oil tanker, six vessels would be disposed of. “Pakistan needs at least four oil tanker and we have only one,” he said, adding that PNSC plans to buy a new tanker shortly. PNSC, he said, is in process of recovery and 50 per cent of it has already been recovered. By next year, it would be able to achieve break even by fully covering its expenses.

He was of the view that PNSC should remain in the public sector “as in case of war, we will need PNSC”.

In Port Qasim Authority, he said, staff strength had been curtailed to 15,000 from 22,000, besides cutting departments to 16 from 25 and divisions to six from five. He said its profit had reduced in 2000-2001 because of increased expenditure on dredging work and night navigation facility.

FPCCI chief Iftikhar Ali Malik pointed out that despite lapse of over six months, no headway has been made to streamline the statuary requirements for implementing the Merchant Marine Policy, which was announced last year.

He said there was also an urgent need to correct the existing SROs so as to remove ambiguity and clear understanding of foreign investors.

In reply, Javed Ashraf attributed the delay in issuance of SROs to some technical problems, which are being sorted out with the CBR and Finance Ministry. He assured that the SROs will be issued shortly to give legal effect to the policy.