Agreement to make Azakhel dryport fully operational

PESHAWAR: Federal Railways Ministry and Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) have agreed to take joint measures to make Azakhel dryport fully operational.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between Federal Minister for Railways Muhammad Azam Khan Swati and a delegation of SCCI led by its president Hasnain Khurshid.During the meeting, the SCCI president presented recommendations proposed by the chamber to facilitate Pak-Afghan transit trade, through Azakhel dryport, which, on the occasion, were thoroughly discussed.

Azam Swati agreed to the proposals and praised the SCCI for presenting modalities to make fully operational the Azakhel Dryport to expedite the process of export proceeds through Pakistan Railways and ease difficulties of exporters.

The minister issued directives to implement the proposals of SCCI at the earliest.The chamber delegation thanked the minister for issuing instructions on the spot for immediate execution of the SCCI recommendations.

Hasnain Khurshid said the Federal Board of Revenue is willing to allow cross stuffing of transit goods at Karachi port and Azakhel port but needs the consent of federal government and Ministry of Railways as from the Azakhel dryport transit goods will be loaded in single truck bonded carriers which has been made procedural recently.

However, he said the system couldn’t be implemented because of not fully operationalization of Azakhel dryport.He said the Pakistan Railways would earn enormous revenue if the Azakhel dry-port could be fully operationalized besides, it can also generate employment opportunities.

The SCCI chief said the KP was exporting items like furniture, mineral, marbles, matches and honey, etc but the exporters were facing problems owing to the unavailability of bonded carriers’ facility in Peshawar to carry these exports goods to Karachi port for onward destinations.

He added that this practice damaged most of the consignments at the Karachi port.Hasnain Khurshid said the Azakhel dryport event after its completion hadn’t been fully operationalized despite being inaugurated by Prime Minister Imran Khan in January last year and still lacked the basic facilities, consequentially, exporters were faced with enormous problems.He said a fully functional Azakhel dryport would help facilitate Pak-Afghan Transit trade and onward to Central Asian Republics.