ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to establish dry ports at Tor­kham, Chaman and Wagha border points at a cost of Rs20.196 billion to facilitate trade with neighbouring countries.

The project will be completed in 36 months, which will make Pakistan third country in South Asia after Bangladesh and India having dedicated land ports for handling goods and passenger traffics at borders.

The establishment of land ports was part of the Stra­tegic Trade Policy Frame­work (2012-15) announced in December 2012.

A high-powered committee was set up in January 2014 to suggest solutions for the establishment of land ports.

The first meeting of the committee was held on April 25. The second meeting of the committee, chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, was held at the Finance Ministry here on Wednesday, which reviewed the feasibility report prepared by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under its technical assistance.

The foreign exchange component will be Rs20bn while the local component will be Rs1.8bn.

FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa gave a detailed presentation on the progress made so far with regard to establishing land ports.

The project was already included in PSDP 2014-15 and a final draft of PC-I is about to be completed.

The sub-committee has already visited the three sites and layout plans for the border crossing points have been prepared and ADB review mission report is being awaited.

After the submission of the review report, stakeholder’s consensus on layout design will be taken.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar directed the members of the committee that the management structure of this project be developed on lesson learnt from various PSDP-funded projects, including those implemented by the FBR and there should be adequate delegation of power for running this project.

Dar said that Land Port Authority (LPA) should oversee the construction, and management and maintenance of the integrated border crossing points and future extension.

He said that LPA should act as a common platform for all regulatory agencies, including customs, immigration, terminal operator, security, quarantine, banks, shipping agencies, freight forwarders etc and the concept would be based on various administration models followed in countries like Singa­pore, India and Bangladesh.

The minister further stated that the LPA should be self-sustaining entity, with maximum operational and financial autonomy.

The finance minister directed the FBR chief to present the first draft of PC-I by Aug 21 for approval by the committee.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz said that there should be more control on the border areas to improve security situation of the country and “unless we monitor the border areas, the security situation in the country will not improve.”

He said that different IT options, like biometric and computerised immigration systems, be introduced to keep a thorough check on border crossing. Further the border security force should be given special assistance and training to control the situation on the borders, he added.

Commerce Minister Khur­ram Dastagir said that the setting up of the modern land ports would enhance regional trade and cooperation. He pointed out that in future more border crossing points will be set up to curb smuggling.

Published in Dawn, July 17th , 2014