Inland water transport:

Inland water transport

Vice President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Tariq Haleem has said that the FPCCI Standing Committee on Inland Water Transport & Flood Management has prepared a working paper and it will be presenting this to the Prime Minister of Pakistan sometime during February 2019. He said it is a historical fact that during the British Raj in 1800's, the British troops moved from Karachi to Khyber by the Inland Waterways on boats.

It is only after the start of railway that this practice stopped. When you re-commission your inland waterways then automatically flood management is done and wastage of water is curtailed. He said that lack of general awareness, absence of right policies and counterproductive regulations are the impediments of maritime sector that need to be addressed.

He said that Pakistan's maritime, seaboard and logistic sectors have enormous potential to earn for the country. However, these sectors have not been harnessed and needs government's focus, he added. He said that even a single rupee of extra cost at the ports trickles down to our masses, if a rupee is saved that saving also trickles down to the masses. We need to bring down the cost of doing business and improve our efficiency at all the ports of Pakistan, he emphasised.