LARKANA, Oct 30: A dry port set up in a portion of the railway station on Dec 23, 1994, has since failed to take off mainly because of lack of coordination among government departments, disinterest in the project by successive governments and a variety of other technical reasons.

The Benazir government had launched the project to fulfil traders’ demand who convinced her that it would generate economic activity, create new jobs, encourage export of indigenous products and import of goods.

Gada Hussain Mahesar, central vice-president of the Sindh Abadgar Board and pioneer member of the Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the dry port was primarily established for the export of rice from Larkana division, which had a potential to export 200,000 tonnes of the grain annually to the Middle East and other countries.

He said the traders had urged the railway authorities to provide them empty containers with one-side fare but it insisted on charging two-way fare. They came up with another proposal after the first was rejected and proposed to divert empty containers coming from Punjab after off-loading freight at the Rohri junction but it too was turned down, he said.

Mr Mahesar blamed lack of coordination among departments concerned and traders coupled with lack of interest by successive governments for the failure of the project.

He said that Punjab traders were taking advantage of the facility of dry port at Lahore for exporting rice. If the project had functioned in an adequate manner, it would not only have given a boost to export but also generated many jobs, he said.

The dry port could be used to export rice, mango, guava, indigenous fertiliser, vegetables, herbs, tomato, husk, roses and date, he said.

Tarique Nazeer Shaikh, president of the Traders Association Larkana, said that on the one hand elected representatives of Larkana did not take any interest in reviving the project and on the other the administration failed to improve cargo service, compelling traders to rely more on road transport.

He urged the government to restore traders’ confidence in railways to help revive the dry port, which could prove highly advantageous for exporting rice, tomato and other vegetables.

He said that Larkana and its adjoining areas could export 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes of dates to Australia and India through the dry port and import palm oil, soya beans, chemicals, tin-plates, spare parts, dyes, and second-hand clothes.

Atlaf Karmani, a senior station master who was involved in the project and has since been retired, said that lack of exportable commodities in bulk and absence of facility of opening ‘letter of credit’ with banks were key factors which caused the failure of the project.

He said the government did not lay a new railway track nor build a separate building for the port. It took only cosmetic measures by declaring a portion of godowns as custom port and posting there deputy superintendent of land custom, he said.

LCCI president Mohammad Suleman Shaikh said that though he believed it would be an exercise in futility local traders should start taking an interest in the project and push the government to revive it.

He said that most of the Larkana exporters were doing business from Karachi and relied on roads for transportation of goods. He said he had little faith in the government as it had sanctioned establishment of another dry port in Sukkur instead of reviving this project, he said.

The deputy collector of Model Customs Collectorate, Sukkur, wrote to the presidents of chambers of commerce and industries and rice mills of Larkana, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze, Ghotki, Jacobabad and Kashmore on Sept 26, 2009 that no consignment had been imported or exported through Larkana Dry Port since the day it had been established on Dec 23, 1994 by the Federal Board of Revenue.

The idea about the dry port was materialised after a meeting of a delegation of the Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the prime minister on Jan 3, 1994 in Larkana.

Later on Jan 27, 1994, Syed Anwar Haider, former commissioner of Larkana, wrote a letter to the federal secretaries of commerce and communication about the dry port.

On Dec 23, 1994, the Central Board of Revenue issued a notification declaring a portion of Larkana railway station as custom port under the Custom Act, 1969, for the clearance of goods imported or exported.