A BORDER terminal at Jamrud, built by the National Logistic Cell (NLC) in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for handling Afghanistan-bound goods under the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) and exports from Pakistan, is to go into operation by the end of this month.

The NLC-Jamrud terminal has been set up by the military-owned freight handling company for clearance of consignments heading to Afghanistan and its adjoining landlocked Central Asian Republics (CARs).

The station is in addition to an NLC’s facility at Amangarh (Nowshera), about 30 kilometres east of Peshawar, for shipments of ‘Goods in Transit to Afghanistan (GITA)’.

The NLC’s officials say that the facility is a part of the prime minister’s initiative for the National Trade Corridor (NTC) aimed at improving logistic facilities for speedy clearance of goods.

The terminal will have modern facilities, including warehouses for storage of goods, office of the deputy collector customs and a branch of the National Bank of Pakistan. Scanners have also been installed at the terminal to check smuggling of contraband goods.

The terminal will have tracking facility to ensure safety of consignments from Jamrud to Torkham border that involves approximately 35-kilometer distance.

The facility will certainly enable the NLC to expand its role as a major logistic service provider. But, the step has irked both traders and the Pakistan Railways authorities. The traders, involved with the ATT business, fear that shifting of such activities from Peshawar to, what they call, a volatile tribal area, would increase their hardships and ultimately the country may lose revenue, which it earns through offering transit facility to Afghanistan.

The biggest worry of the businessmen is uncertain law and order situation in Khyber Agency, where armed clashes between two rival groups have taken hundreds of lives during the last one year.

Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, Chairman, Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) standing committee on dry port, argues that security environment in Jamrud was not conducive to carrying out money transaction in cash to clear their ATT goods at the NLC facility. Transit business involves huge cash transactions that could not be handled in such tribal area because of existing insecurity.

Also, he explains, every custom clearing agent has workers engaged both at the Peshawar dry port and NLC’s Amangarh station for handling of export and ATT goods. The opening of a third facility will mean that they will have to add to their staff strength.

Abdul Hameed Gorwara, senior vice-president of Pak-Afghan Traders’ Group, says the businessmen involved in the transit business will have to face a number of operational issues like shortage of skilled labour.

Currently, he says every custom clearing agent has skilled labourers, who know how to load and unload transit goods, while in case the business is shifted to Jamrud they will find no skilled labour.

“Being located at the doorstep of Central Asia, we need to facilitate the Afghan trade, otherwise the Afghan businessmen will turn to Bander Abas, the Iranian seaport, and deprive Pakistan from revenue worth billions of rupees annually,” says Mr Gorwara,

He believes that shifting of business will hamper government’s efforts of making Pakistan as hub of transport activities for Afghanistan and CARs.

Apart from the businessmen, the proposed plan has also upset the railways authorities who say the department will lose a handsome amount of their earning.

Under the new arrangement, the NLC trucks and Pakistan railways wagons transporting ATT goods from Karachi would offload consignments at Jamrud station for customs clearance,.

This will make the Jamrud station as hub of activities relating to the ATT. While the railways transit station located at the Cantonment station will become non-operational for this purpose.

The railways will require spending huge amount on up-gradation of railway track from cantonment station to the newly-built NLC’s Jamrud terminal involving a distance of 17-kilometers.

The existing rail tracks, according to them, linking Peshawar with Jamrud cannot bear the load of heavy consignments.

The businessmen also fear that the functioning of NLC’s station will create hurdles in smooth movement of railway wagons on such track, which passes through runway of the Peshawar International Airport.

“The authorities will need to take permission from the concerned authorities for using the track passing through the runway. It will take a lot of time to get such clearance and the traders will be the ultimate sufferers of the whole exercise,” fears Mr Sarhadi.