Port of Karachi - Expansion

Expansion

The flow of cargo to and from the port is hampered by severe congestion in the harbour with several other maritime facilities located close to the port. Adjacent to the West Wharf is the Karachi Fishing Harbour, which is administered separately from the port and is the base for a fleet of several thousand fishing vessels. The West Wharf also hosts a ship repair facility and shipyard and a naval dockyard at the tip of the wharf, while to the south of the port are the Karachi Naval Base and the Kiamari Boat Club.

The Port of Karachi also faces competition from a new private terminal located 5 kilometres to the west. In recent years the federal government has attempted to alleviate the increased congestion by constructing a second port in Karachi thirty kilometres to the east at Port Qasim and a third major port at Gwadar, about 650 kilometres west of Karachi.

The Karachi Fishing Harbour has been upgraded recently, and a second fishing harbour has been built 18 kilometres away at Korangi. The transfer of some naval vessels to the new naval base at Ormara has brought about further reductions in congestion.

Further deepening of the port has been planned by the Karachi Port Trust in order to enhance facilities. The channel is being dredged initially to 13.5 metres deep to cater for 12-metre draught vessels at all tides. At Kiamari Groyne, located at the outer tip of the harbour, dredging will be to 16.5 metres to enable vessels up to 300 metres long to dock. Other projects to expand the port include:

• An increase the handling capacity of KICT from 300,000 TEUs to 400,000 TEUs per annum
• Two new berths at KICT with 14 metres depth alongside and an additional 100,000 m² terminal/stacking area
• Installation of modern facilities at PICT (completed in April 2004)
• A new bulk cargo terminal at East Wharf
• Reconstruction of the oldest oil pier to allow tankers of 90,000 metric tons deadweight (DWT) to berth
• A new 100-acre (0.4 km2) cargo village to cater for containers and general and bulk cargo
• Reconstruction of the 100-year old NMB Wharf to enhance the berthing of passenger vessels
• The purchase of a new dredger, two hopper barges, two harbour tugs, two water barges, an anchor hoist vessel, two pilot boats, and a dredger tender
• A new desalination plant to address the city's water shortage problem
• A 500-foot (150 m) high Port Tower for commercial and recreational use including a revolving restaurant
• The construction of a 500 acre (2 km²) Port Town with 13,000 homes for port workers at nearby Hawkes Bay
• A new Port Club at Chinna Creek adjacent to the East Wharf

On 9 November 2007, the Karachi Port Trust signed a US$1 billion agreement with Hutchison Port Holdings to construct a new terminal called the "Pakistan Deep Water Container Port", which would begin operations by 2010, and would have ten berths capable of handling Super Post Panamax container ships.