New dry port planned near Kot Radha Kishan

With the objective to relieve load on Lahore's dry port and facilitate traders/exporters, Railway authorities have decided to construct another such facility near Kot Radha Kishan at Premnagar railway station.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that Railway authorities and CBR had already acquired 300 acres of land for the project, which largely aimed to expedite unloading of goods trains from Karachi. The work for laying a railway track for the new dry port would be started soon and shades will also be set up for the unloaded goods at the port.
It may be mentioned that at present, there are six dry ports running under the management of Pakistan Railways. These are: Lahore dry port (established in 1973), Karachi dry port (1974), Quetta dry port (1984), Peshawar dry port (1986), Multan dry port (1988) and Rawalpindi dry port (1990). In addition to the above, there are four dry ports, running under the management of private sector, including Sambrial dry port, Faisalabad dry port, NLC dry port at Thokar Niaz Beg, Lahore and NLC dry port at Quetta.
The sources said Pakistan Railways was the only carrier that was issued licenses and allowed to transship bonded cargo to and from Karachi ports up to 1995. Subsequently, the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) had also issued licenses to private road carriers for transshipment of bonded consignments to and from Karachi Ports. As such there are road transport carriers operating as private custom bonded road carriers besides Railway & NLC.
Business circles were of the view that Pakistan Railways (PR) needed to take major steps to improve the quality of freight services. These include improving delivery times, reliability, tracking information etc. Presently, PR takes 20-27 days to deliver upcountry at a distance of 1800 km, which is 4 to 7 times slower than in China and the US. In contrast, China rail is 2-3 times cheaper than road. They said that dry port near Kot Radha Kishan at Premnagar railway station would facilitate the exporters.