GILGIT-BALTISTAN: Ali Raza, Collector MCC GB, will demonstrate a presentation on handing over the Sost Dry Port to DG NCL on Wednesday.
According to details given by Collector Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) to Customs Today that the National Logistic Cell is a development partner against the Pakistan Railways for developing infrastructure. After the conclusion of the litigation, the dry port will be handed over to the NLC for development of Sost Dry Port which is a gateway to the CPEC.
It may be remembered that the Sost Dry Port was leased out to the National Logistic Cell for a period of 20 years in October 2016. A Memorandum of Understanding to this effect was signed between Zafar Iqbal, Chairman of the Sost Port Trust, and Syed Kausar Hussain Shah, NLC’s Operations Director. It was mentioned in the MoU that the lease could be revised with the mutual agreement after 20 years.
The decision of handover of the port to the NLC has been taken after the consultation with the members of the Port Trust. He said the shareholders were not satisfied with the performance of the Chinese partners who were running the port since its inception. He added that the NLC will hopefully protect the rights of the shareholders and make the region’s only dry port a robust center of trade and commerce.
According to the MoU, NLC, which is part of the Pakistan Army, will expand the Sost Dry Port and also modernize it on international standards to make it suitable for handling large amounts of CPEC related cargo.
