Cruise travel service for pilgrims to Iran, says Kamran Michael

LAHORE  – The PML-N government has taken a lot of initiatives to develop shipping and ports of the country. This was stated by Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Kamran Michael on Monday while talking to The Nation during his visit to the offices of Nawa-i-Waqt Group.
“The Hazara community was facing lot of problems. When the pilgrims used to go to Iran, they were attacked while travelling through Balochistan. Many were killed. On the direction of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif the Ministry of Ports and Shipping has arranged for their travel to Iran by sea. The service will start in a month’s time. We have completed all the homework and talked with the Iranian officials as well as cruise shipping companies.
“This cruise service will start from Karachi and the pilgrims will be taken to Char Bah port of Iran. In the coming budget funds will be allocated for starting this service under the platform of Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC).
“The basic purpose of this service is to give protection to the citizens of Pakistan and especially to the Shia community for travel to Iran. Each passenger will be allowed to carry 100 kg luggage,” the Minister revealed. “From next year we will also be starting sea travel service for people going to Saudi Arabia for Haj. Low income families would benefit from this service,” he said.
“As everyone knows that Expo 2020 is going to be held in Dubai and the whole world is concentrating on that. It is expected that in these six years nearly about 200 million people will visit Dubai.  All the eatables in Dubai come from other countries. We are also included in the list of those countries which export perishable eatables like vegetables, fruits and meat. So we are acquiring speedy boats which would carry this luggage in 24 to 28 hours thus minimizing the transport cost. This service would benefit our businessmen and traders. In this regard we have taken all the stakeholders on board. This service is expected to start in two months time,” Kamran said. 
On a query about the Gwadar Port’s development, he said it is the economic hub between the Central Asian States.
“The economic growth of Pakistan is linked to this project and to make this project successful is need of the hour. We are going to get 1.7 billion dollars for development projects that include a new airport, hospital and a school that will give technical and vocational training. Then the extension work of berths will also be done. We are also building free industrial zone there.
Above all the road infrastructure will also be developed. China is a concession holder there and we will provide land where it will build warehouses and develop a full fledge industry.
 Balochistan government is acquiring land for that purpose on emergency basis,” he said. 
The Minister said the government wants to develop more small ports.
“We are also developing a mini port near Gadani and lot of work has been done,” he said.
“The main work of this Ministry is the handling of containers. People confuse our role and assume that these have also some link with the goods inside those containers. Let me clarify that Custom officials duty is to examine those goods and determine the Custom duty. Now there is no chance of losing the containers. Inquiry about the lost containers is complete,” Kamran explained.