LARKANA:Dry port established during the regime of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto has been rendered dysfunctional by the relevant authorities and the government has failed to revive it, despite it was formally inaugurated by the then president Asif Ali Zardari in 2010.
Railway authorities in the past adopted wrong and discriminated policies due to which rent was even charged for transporting empty containers from the business community due to which not a single container was loaded here, and finally the dry port was closed by Nawaz Sharif government as it sustained heavy losses.
Dry ports are working in Punjab’s Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad cities where no such policy has been enforced by the railway authorities.
Due to higher charges of Larkana dry pot, the local business community prefers to use road transport.
Old sheds of the dry port have become dangerous. It doors and windows have already been stolen and its buildings left unattended, providing a chance to habitual land grabbers to occupy them.
Large number of cattle heads can be seen there, while a few buildings have become ideal hangouts for drug addicts who have also encroached upon them as well.
Four million tons of 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 losses to the farmers.
Even fish can be exported which is flourishing in several hundreds of sweet water 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.
PPP MNA Ramesh Lal, while talking to newsmen here on Tuesday, said that according to the claims of the PTI government and its railway minister Sheikh Rashid, not only dry port here should be revived but the project of a branch of State Bank of Pakistan in Larkana must also be revived for the business community to earn precious foreign exchange through import and export.
He said a tax-free Industrial Zone has been established in Larkana spreading over 500 acres of forest land which began in 2017 near Khair Muhammad Areeja. He said 95% of the work has been completed but it is yet to be inaugurated.
He said agro-based and manufacturing industries will be established in this industrial zone. He said one billion rupees have so far been spent on this project and two billion rupees more promised.