Daily Times

Dry Port established during the regime of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto has been rendered dysfunctional by the relevant authorities but the subsequent PPP government of 2008 also failed to revive it despite inauguration by former president Asif Ali Zardari in 2010.

Railway authorities in the past adopted wrong and discriminated policies due to which hire was even charged for transporting empty containers from the business community due to which not a single container was loaded and then dry port was closed by Nawaz Sharif government. Dry ports are working in Punjab’s Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad cities where no such policy has been enforced by the railway authorities. Hire of both sides was declared to be charged by the railway authorities from the traders which made the products costly hence the business community preferred to use road transport than railway tracks. Sheds of the dry port have become dangerous, doors and windows have been stolen by the people and buildings have been left unattended perhaps for the habitual land grabbers to occupy. Large number of cattle can be seen there daily and few buildings have become ideal places for drug addicts who have encroached upon them as well. Four million tons rice is annually produced in Larkana and in areas of Northern Balochistan and 80% of them are exported to international market to earn precious foreign exchange. Likewise, guava is produced in Larkana, Shikarpur and Dadu districts which is sown on thousands of acres and unavailability of dry port has added to the miseries of growers of these crops because their commodities cannot be exported to the needy countries as guava is a fruit and it needs cold storage / container facility to keep it fresh and tasty. There is neither cold storage nor facility of cold container nor olive oil mill due to which guava crop is damaged in huge quantity causing huge losses to the farmers. Even fish can be exported which is flourishing in several hundreds of sweet water fish ponds and Indus River but unavailability of cold storage has also ruined this entire business. Local fish contractors are doing roaring trade with the support of relevant government authorities because the users are supplied fish at exorbitant rates but the relevant federal ministry and railways minister have so far failed to resolve the issues confronted by the trading community.