KARACHI, June 4: The International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH) have awarded the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) a gold medal on its development programme for 2003-04. The chairman, KPT, Admiral Ahmad Hayat was invited to the biennial World Conference of the IAPH at Shanghai, China to receive the award.

The competition was tough as there were 70 entries on various development programmes and projects contested by leading ports of the world. In anticipation of greater volume of world trade under the WTO regime most of the world ports have undergone tremendous development programmes during last couple of years.

The ports world over enhanced their handling capacity automating their operations to meet the future challenges. New terminals are burgeoning at a rapid pace as well as being up-graded to accommodate bigger ships with larger cargo space.

The KPT last year won an award for Port Operations at the Dubai International Maritime Awards ceremony and this is yet another feather on its cap.

The Karachi Port was selected for its overall development programmes and particularly the large scale automation and computerization which had added immensely to port productivity.

In the last two years, all port operations at the KPT have been automated through extensive use of information technology. A prominent feature of the automation that it has been applied in all facets of port activity - from cargo clearance to revenue collection, from vessel tracking to port security, estate management to craft maintenance. In short none of the port activity has been left out from automation.