KARACHI, Nov 21: The Sindh government has expressed its willingness to take over the federally-controlled Korangi Fish Harbour, it is reliably learnt here.

According to sources, the matter was discussed at a recently held meeting on fisheries sector which was chaired by the Sindh governor.

Federal minister for food, agriculture and livestock; adviser to the president; provincial food and agriculture minister; DG, Maritime Security Agency, and the Fishermen’s Cooperative Society chairman, besides other officials connected with the sector attended the meeting.

It was proposed that the Korangi Fish Harbour be transferred to Sindh with all assets and without liabilities, so as to make it operational.

The meeting was told that a single management of both the Karachi and Korangi fish harbours would be more facilitating and it would be appreciated that Sindh “will have a greater incentive to invest in support services and infrastructure.”

It is learnt that the advisor to the CE, Shafiq Niaz, assured the meeting that the proposal would be considered in Islamabad. It was also discussed that all the deep-sea fishing vessels and medium size vessels must offload their catch at the Korangi Fish Harbour.

The federally-controlled (rupees one billion) project was built with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank to ease traffic congestion at the Karachi Fish Harbour.

It was to start operation in January 18, 1995, but was delayed due to lack of infrastructural facilities, such as road and electricity etc.

However, the harbour was opened in Nov 1996 on an experimental basis to determine its operational capability and revenue generation. But the response from the boat owners, processors, buyers and auctioneers, through navigation of fishing vessels from Karachi Fish Harbour, had never been encouraging because of the lack of support facilities like cold storage and packaging.

The project, which was originally meant for providing the facility of anchorage to deep-sea vessels, remained in the doldrums because of bureaucratic wranglings.

In 1996, efforts were made for handing over the control of the project to the provincial government, but without any result.

The issue was raised again at the principal secretary level and the advisor to the president was requested for transfer of the project.

The meeting also proposed that the zone from 12 to 20 nautical miles from the coastline be treated as a buffer zone and local fishermen, having traditional fishing boats, be allowed to freely fish in this zone without licence and even beyond that limit if they upgraded their boats without any additional charges.

It also recommended that the medium size vessels of 100 to 250 GRT, local as well as under joint venture operations, where the company is to be a Pakistani registered and the vessel a foreign one, will operate in the zone between 20 to 35 miles and land their entire catch at the Korangi Fish Harbour.

It also suggested that the industrial fishing by deep-sea vessels (300 to 500 GRT) will be allowed from 35 to 200 nautical miles. These vessels too must export their catch from the Korangi Fish Harbour. There should also be a realistic minimum target for them.

Licences to the vessels for fishing in 20 to 35 and 35 to 200 nautical miles zones are to be issued for an initial period of six months. All vessels with such licences must have the tracking devises installed.

In addition, all vessels issued licenses for fishing beyond 20 nautical miles, must conform to the Sindh government’s notification of closed season as well as installation of turtle excluder devise to conform to the TED regulations according to the international standards.