Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Pakistan Seaports

Karchi port:

Located west of the Indus Delta on the Arabian Sea coast, the port of Karachi has served Pakistan since the partition. Over 250 years old, Karachi has a natural harbor sheltered behind the island of Keamari and a natural breakwater at manora. The whole of Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and Afghanistan comprise its hinterland.
The story of this city goes back to 1720 when a group of merchants moved from Kharak Bunder on the Had River and established their business at a fishing village called Kulachi jo Goth (The village of Kulachi Tribe). Karachi has developed and acquired its name, from this village which turned into an embryo town with the arrival of the merchants, Karachi became an important port under the Talpurs who ruled over it from 1795. In 1835, the port owned 100 boats. In the following year, the British acquired Karachi. Charles Napier, the British governor, expanded the port facilities by building a lighthouse at manora and a timber pier at Keamari. He also built and improved roads to Kotri, Thatta and Sehwan to connect the port with its hinterland.
In 1852, The Karachi Municipality was created and Karachi Port began to receive more attention. The Napier mole was constructed in 1854, the seaward entrance of China Creek was closed, in1863 Keamari groyne was constructed to protect the harbor from tides and waves the Native Jetty was erected in 1866,and the manora breakwater was built in 1877.
Till 1882 there was no dock or pier at the Karachi Harbor for ocean going vessels. In 1882 the Mereweather Pier, in 1888 Erkin's Wharf and in 1895 James Wharf were constructed. By 1910, 17 wharves, collectively called East Wharf, had been built. The management of the port was entrusted to the Karachi Harbor Board in 1880, later replaced by the Karachi Port Trust in 1886.
In 1861, Karachi was connected to Kotri by a railway line which was extended to Lahore in 1874 and then to Quetta in 1877. In 1927 Karachi became important port, 28 berths of the West Wharf were built and were equipped with electric cranes. Two more berths and one ship repairing berth were built between 1942 and 1944. A shipyard was also built. Karachi became an important ship repairing port, where 1000 ships were repaired. After 1947, both the East and West Wharves were reconstructed and bulk oil pier was installed in addition, a new oil terminal was constructed and the channel was deepened from 9 to 30 meters. With the construction of an oil tanker berth, the handling capacity of the port increased from about 5 million to 10 million tonnes per annumm.
The accelerated pace of development was necessary because of Karachi's increasing responsibilities. In 1947-8, Karachi port handled 3.5 million tonnes of cargo. In 1999-2000, it handled 23.8 million tonnes. As the work assigned to Karachi Port has underway. At the same time, a new port, Port Qasim has been built close to Pakistan Steel.

Port Qasim:

The Port Qasim Authority was established in 1973 to develop a new port to serve Pakistan Steel and also to handle general cargo. After examining several sites, a location was selected about 50 kilometers south-east of Pakistan Steel. The port began to operate in 1980 and has a 45 kilometer long navigation channel. It also has one iron and coal berth, once container terminal, one oil terminal and other facilities.
The cargo handled by Port Qasim has increased from 2.9 million tonnes in 1983-4 to 8 million tonnes in 1997-8. Port Qasim handles about 30 percent of the total cargo handled by Karachi Port.

Gwadar Port:

A new port at Gwadar on the western side of the Balochistan Coast is being developed with Chinese assistance.

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