KARACHI, May 24: Gwadar— the only deep sea port outside the strategic straits of Hormuz, seems to be attracting more criticism than attention of Pakistan’s trading partners.

It is alleged that the port is devoid of an effective master plan and the equipments purchased do not meet the requirement of a modern container terminal designed to operate as a trans-shipment hub port.

Above all the marketing of this strategic port with a capacity to handle post-Panamax category vessels was not properly carried out by showing the shallower draft of its approach channel and berths, while inviting expressions of interest (EoI) and request for proposal (RfP).

As a result major international port operators did not show any interest and only five operators - Hutchison Port Holding, Hong Kong; Dubai Port World Dubai; Globe Marine Services Co., Saudi Arabia; Mansour Al Mosaid, Saudi Arabia; and Pakistan International Container Terminal, Karachi—indicated interest in Gwadar Port operations.

Another aspect that worked against the port is the quality of boats and equipments, including pilot boats, tugs and cranes. All these equipments do not meet the requirement of a modern container terminal.

Ever since the first Gulf war shipping lines, which operate in the Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia, had been looking for a port, which is outside the sensitive Gulf area but still situated on a major sea route.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also supported this idea and worked on it, and finally Gwadar was selected to be the most suitable port as it met all these conditions.

However, ports and shipping experts believe that the Gwadar Port, which is one of the most important projects taken up in the maritime sector after an interval of many decades, failed to come up to their expectations. Citing an example, these experts said that the two tugs purchased from China were not only too weak to confront the offshore winds in Gwadar but also would not be able to pull the post Panamax ships with 30,000 to 50,000DWT. Due to their mammoth size these ships are generally termed as ‘mother-ships’.

They further said that now-a-days these tugs were operating at Karachi Port. They narrated an incident where the tugs could not handle some ships due to their weight and left them to slam against the berth.

Similarly, experts said that the two pilot boats - Shama and Mashaal - with a speed of 12 knots were too slow to catch the speed of the approaching mother vessels into the harbour.

They said that vessels approached the harbour from a fair-way buoy at a speed of 12 to 16 knots and the pilot boat has to maintain a speed running alongside the approaching vessel so that the chief pilot could easily ascend the ship and have sufficient strength and speed to move away from the inward pull of the ship at a quicker and faster pace. “God forbids, any variation could slam the pilot boat with the approaching ship,” they added.

Furthermore, these experts said that cranes were also of conventional type, whereas any modern and hub port needs gantries, including rubber-tyre gantries so that boxes could be loaded and unloaded at a faster pace and the turn-around period for vessels should be the shortest, particularly of the mother ships, which carry around 4,000 Teus.

The manpower at the Gwadar Port or even at its controlling bodies - Gwadar Port Implementation Authority (GPIA) and Gwadar Port Authority (GPA)— fall short of required qualifications and expertise.

These experts pointed out that the manager Marine Operation at the Gwadar Port, who is equal to the deputy conservator (DC) or chief pilot at the Karachi Port has the experience of merchant navy and has worked as a deep sea pilot only. For any chief pilot it was necessary, they said, that he should first be a master then basic harbour pilot and in a period of 15 to 20 years he becomes harbour master and another four to five years experience would elevate him to the position of a DC.

The out-going chairman of the GPIA delegated all the administrative and financial powers to the project director through an office order MOC/GPA/307/1254, dated October 4, 2004. The experts wondered how a single person could take decisions of such important nature, including technical, particularly when he himself was not a civil engineer but holds a mechanical engineer’s degree on ship construction.

The Hutchison Port Holding, Hong Kong, scored the highest rating from the Gwadar Port’s consultants on their EoI and RfP but they backed out thereby paving the way for the second best - Dubai Port World - who have already submitted their one-sided terms of reference on April 14, 2006.

However, the port and shipping experts opine that it would have been in the best national interest if the authorities called fresh expression of interest (EoI) and request for proposal (RfP) after announcing the real and deeper draft of the approach channel and berths of the port, which is being presently dredged up to 14.5 metres to accommodate the mother-ships of post Panamax category.