KARACHI: The $255 million Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT) is all set to become operational by the end of this year at Port Qasim, according to PIBT Chief Executive Officer Sharique A. Siddiqui. PIBT is under construction at the country’s second largest seaport with Marine Group of Companies, International Finance Corporation-Member of World Bank group, OPEC Fund for International Development and a local banking syndicate holding, respectively, 51, 20 and 29 percent of its shares.(SIC) The operators have targeted January 2017 as a deadline for commercial operationality of the country’s first multipurpose dirty bulk cargo handling facility. “We would go operational in December this year,” Siddiqui told Business Recorder in his office here. A public listed company at Pakistan Stock Exchange, PIBT’s functionality would mark the doubling of coal import to energy-scarce Pakistan where the resource-constrained PML-N government, as a matter of policy, is prioritizing cheaper sources of energy generation like coal over expensive furnace oil. A major source of raw material for cement manufacturers, the country’s current coal imports, the PIBT chief says, stand at four million tons per annum. “Your coal imports would double,” said Siddiqui. Explaining, the PIBT chief said his terminal, when operational, would cater to the 1320 megawatts (MW) coal-fired power plant being developed at Sahiwal, Punjab. PIBT’s handling capacity for imported coal and exportable cement and clinker is 12 million and four million tons per year. “We initially had set our handling capacity at 4 million tons with $180 million investment. But then revised it up to 12 million with $255 million investment after the government unveiled its (coal-based) power generation policy,” the chief executive said adding PIBT was meant to standardize the century-old supply chain in Pakistan along international lines. “Compared to 6-7 handling days of Karachi Port, a 50,000 metric ton vessel would be discharged within a-day-and-half time at PIBT,” he said about cargo handling efficiency of the terminal. PIBT would have two dedicated ship unloading cranes to handle 1,850 tons of coal and one ship loading crane to handle 1200 tons of exportable cement and clinker per hour. This would be supported by a “mechanized truck loading station” wherein two trucks, each having 50 tons per minute rated capacity, would be deployed. Also, the facility would have, as Siddiqui called it, a modern Dust Suppression System (DSS) in the face of seven-kilometer-long conveyor belt for the handling of powdery thus potentially dust-making coal. A water sprinkler system and wind fence also are part of DSS. “On pollution control and efficiency, we are following the standards of World Bank, one of our investors,” said the PIBT chief adding the new terminal would replace the 100-150-year-old dirty bulk cargo handling system with a state-of-the-art fully-mechanized one. Drawn to the health-hazardous coal terminal at Keamari’s Groyne Yard, the PIBT executive said unlike KPT’s his was “located far away from the industries and residential areas” at Port Qasim. Further, Siddiqui says to have planted mangroves over 1200 acres of land at Port Qasim in collaboration with International Union for Conservation of Nature. “We, having cut only 3-4 acres mangroves, had to mitigate our footprints,” he said. PIBT, having 62-acre backup area, 30×460-meter jetty, 2.5-kilometer-long trestle, would have 13-meter draught to handle vessels of 55,000-75000 dead weight tonnage (DWT). Siddiqui said PIBT’s 12 million tons handling capacity could be enhanced up to 20 million considering the government’s initiative for generation power through coal.