KARACHI: The Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has decided to build a 10-kilometre-long Elevated Express-way at a cost of around Rs45 billion to connect the main port with the Pakistan Deep Water Container Port (PDWCP).

The KPT has been working on various options to provide connectivity to the country’s biggest container terminal having a designed draft of 18 metres and current depth of 16 metres which can accommodate mother ships having a loaded capacity of up to 18,000TEUs (Twenty Feet Equivalent Unit).

Since the deep water container terminal is located at the Keamari Groyne area and has no direct connectivity to allow free movement of heavy vehicular traffic in and out of the port area, the KPT has been working on different options for a long time.

The KPT, besides working on harbour crossing bridge at an estimated cost of over Rs100bn which requires longer completion period, is also working on the Elevated Expressway from Keamari to Gul Bai while touching the East and West wharves and the ICI Bridge.

Though the port authorities were seeking financing arrangements from the World Bank, but the procedure for hiring consultants, design structure and selection of contractor is time consuming. Hence the KPT thought of starting the mega project on self-financing basis for quick and fast operations.

According to official sources, the KPT’s finance department has given a nod for building the Elevated Express­way on self-finance basis with a target to complete the project within 12-18 months.

However, the Planning and Development Depart­ment of the KPT suggested adopting the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (ECP) module for fast and quick achievements, sources said.

An official of the KPT told Dawn that there was no need to hire a consultant for design, engineering and estimation under the ECP but to straightaway begin work and give consultant a free hand to design the project while constructing and executing it in phases.

This saves time as normally it may take years to design and survey before awarding a project to a contractor.

However, under the ECP module, the work can begin within a month, he added.

The KPT official said that the entire project can be executed locally because the country has the expertise especially after the launching of the Metro Bus services in Lahore and Multan. However, the KPT Elevated Expressway is more relevant to the Pindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service because it has around 9km elevated area.

Moreover, port authorities will be able to recover the cost of the project by levying a nominal surcharge on cargo containers moving in and out of the PDWCP.

This will also keep it away from the World Bank funding which entails a long procedure thus consuming a lot of time to fulfil the obligations, while the KPT has to make port operational this year, sources said.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2016