KARACHI: With a steady increase in the demand for coal in the country, the Marine Group of Companies is constructing Pakistan’s first dirty bulk cargo terminal at Port Qasim. The civil works contract for the project was signed on Thursday with a consortium comprising a Turkish firm M/s Siyahkalem and a local firm Maqbool Associates. The project is called Pakistan International Bulk Terminal Limited (PIBT) and will be built at a cost of $175 million. It is to be located just 15km away from the National Highway, which will provide PIBT with direct access to the rest of the country, and will also be connected to the National Railway Network at Port Qasim. Expected to come on line by the beginning of 2015, the cargo terminal will be built on a 30-year Built Operate Transfer (BOT) basis in conjunction with the Port Qasim Authority. The CEO of PIBT, Sharique A. Siddiqui, says the project will be Pakistan’s first mechanised coal, cement and clinker terminal with a capacity for handling up to 12 million tons of coal, clinker and cement with dedicated storage and handling facilities for each type of cargo. Siddiqui says PIBT has developed an Environment Management Plan (EMP), in compliance with applicable laws and regulations of Pakistan, IFC’s performance standards and the World Bank Group Environmental Health and Safety Guidelines. The demand for coal in Pakistan has been rising steadily for the last five years due to the severe energy shortage, which has forced the energy sector, sugar mills and the steel industry to focus on alternative power generation. Adding to the demand for coal has been the adoption of the coal firing system in the cement manufacturing process.