ISLAMABAD: The Fed­eral Board of Revenue (FBR) has approved in principle the design for establishment of three state-of-the art ‘border complexes’ at Torkham, Chaman and Wagah to reduce dwell time for cross-border movement of goods and services.

The deadline for the completion of the projects is December 2021. The objective of the proposed border complexes – which are part of Integrated Transit Trade Management System — is to facilitate legitimate trade, without compromising security of the global supply chain. With the construction of these complexes, the dwell time of goods at border points will reduce by more than five times.

On Tuesday, project preparation was reviewed at a high level meeting chaired by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan at the FBR. It was attended by FBR Member (Customs) Muhammad Zahid, Country Director Asian Develop­ment Bank (ADB) Ms Xiaohong Yang and others.

The meeting was informed that the complexes would be constructed with a loan of $252 million from ADB while $100m would be provided by the government of Pakistan.

On the occasion, Project Director Dr Muhammad Zubair gave a presentation on the overall progress of the project so far.

An official statement issued after the meeting said the Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue said that there shall be no deviation from the overall project objective which is to maximise facilitation to legitimate trade and passenger movement by reducing dwell time.

Mr Khan also directed that the project should eliminate bottlenecks and improving procedures, without compromising on regulatory controls and security. He emphasised that the FBR should ensure completing of the project within stipulated timeframe.

An official source privy to meeting told Dawn that design review for the Torkham border station has been completed. “We are expecting that the National Logistics Company (NLC) will submit its bid for physical work on the border crossing point at Torkham before end of this month,” he said.

The official said that design review for Chaman border has also been in progress. “We are expecting to complete it by early February,” he said, adding that there are some security challenges and difficult terrain.

According to the official, physical work on two projects at Torkham and Chaman will start in April 2018. The contract for construction of these two border stations will be awarded to NLC.

The official said the physical work on third border station at Wagah will begin in September 2018. “We will invite international bids for the Wagah border station”, the official said.

Pakistan has already ratified international conventions to facilitate cross border movement of containers and persons.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2017