Railways urged to make Azakhel dryport fully functional

PESHAWAR: Chairman of Standing Committee of Sarhad Chamber on Railways and Dryports Ziaul Haq Sarhadi has asked the newly appointed Divisional Superintendent (DS) Peshawar Railways Athar Riaz to make Azakhel Dryport fully functional.

A press release issued here said that Ziaul Haq Sarhadi told the official that at time of inauguration of Azakhel Dryport, the business community had been assured that one-window operation would be started at the facility while an export cargo train would also be launched for transportation of goods between Karachi and Peshawar.

The cargo train, which would have provided many facilities to businessmen dealing in imports and exports of goods and had to transport transit goods from port city to Peshawar, could not be launched after passage of years, Zia mentioned.

He said for the last 20 years, export cargo had been closed from Peshawar dry port and all the export goods were transported in trucks from Peshawar to Karachi.

Zia said that KP is blessed with numerous natural resources like gems, marbles, granite and other items like handicraft, carpet, honey and match sticks. All these items should have been transported from Peshawar to Karachi for export purposes in a cargo train from Azakhel dryport , instead of trucks, he added.

He said the Azakhel dryport is almost non-functional due to which more than 250 custom clearing agents in KP are still idle and have no work to do or make some earnings for the families.

Due to the launching of cargo trains, Pakistan Railway can make a significant generation of funds under the head of transportation charges of export import goods from one end of the country to other.

He said due to non-functioning of cargo trains and heavy transportation charges of trucks, a large portion of Afghan Transit trade business has been shifted to Bandar Abbas sea port in Iran.

He also informed Railway officials that Azhakhel dryport lacks facilities for businessmen and export consignments are kept under open sky.