KARACHI (March 24 2009): The Port Qasim Authority (PQA) would bring the $11.4 million Liquid Cargo Terminal (LCT) at Port Qasim to be operational from March 28, 2009. According to official sources at PQA, the Authority had declared the draft and dimensions for the newly-built terminal, the operation of which had long been hindered by at least seven decade-old naval moorings, comprising four underwater sinkers and four buoy chains, at Marginal Wharf, Berth No-1.
The PQA, operator of the Port Qasim, had set an overall length of 170-metre, 30-meter beam and 8.5-meter draught for the LCT, a project of M/s FWQ Enterprise, they added. The sources further said the terminal would start handling the liquid cargo ships from Saturday, March 28, with a vessel carrying around 12,000 metric tones of Malaysian palm oil, being the first to anchor at the facility on the same date.
Another PQA official, however came up with a different date for commissioning of the LCT saying that the terminal would start functioning on March 26 but not on March 28. It is worth mentioning that the PQA had declared to complete and commission the $11.4 million LCT project by January 2008, but the reason of removal of naval moorings from navigational channel, delayed the time frame set by the PQA.
The Authority had allocated Rs 77.90 million for the removal of moorings that according to sources, was a stumbling block for PQAs mega projects, like the project of Deepening and Widening of Channel worth Rs 10.3 billion. Earlier, the PQA had set a designed capacity of 4 million tonnes per annum for the LCT dredging and work on which, had been commenced in March 2007.
