India Tours -Will India be permissible to use Karachi Port?

India Tours -Giving a trade corridor to India will reduce the transportation time to Indian goods consignments bound for the Indian Punjab and reduce the traveling distance of almost 700 kms. A senior official familiar with the development disclosed on condition of anonymity that India Tours was seeking both land and rail routes. He said India’s main focus was on rail route and keeping the land route for containerized cargo as second option. He added that the matter was being discussed and a final decision would be taken after considering all opinions --for and against the idea.

 In this regard, India initially decided to allocate a dedicated space in Ludhiana dry port and later a separate dry port either in Amritsar or Ludhiana depending upon the success of the cargo traffic from this route. The land traveling distance of Amritsar district to Mumbai sea port is 1,700 kilometer and 1,704 from Ludhiana district. On the other hand, the total distance between Lahore-Karachi is only 1032 kilometers. Thus, more than 650 kilometer traveling distance of cargo bound for the Indian Punjab would be saved by moving them from Karachi port as compared to the cargo moved from Mumbai sea port.

The India travel time for cargo via land route from Karachi to Lahore varies from 24 to 36 hours while it takes only 18 to 20 hours if moved by train. Contrary to this, cargo travel by land routes from Mumbai to Indian Punjab Amritsar or Ludhiana districts takes 48 to 60 hours and 24 to 36 hours by rail route. Thus trade corridor for Indian cargos will be both time and distance efficient. However, cost of moving the cargo by using Pakistan’s trade corridor is yet to be calculated, he mentioned. The situation of Pakistan Railways is very poor right now and India might consider sending their own train to Pakistan.

A Customs official told The News that an option of granting trade corridor to India on the pattern of Afghan Transit Trade was being discussed in Islamabad. He said it was also considered that the movement of the India-bound cargo would be handled by National Logistic Company (NLC) as it was handling Pak-India trade at Wagah Border. However, India would be reluctant to the NLC option as it is a subsidiary of the army besides being costly, he added.