Containers at the Karachi International Container Terminal at the Port of Karachi.Aerial view of Gwadar harbour, showing the international port in the background and the fishing harbour in the foreground.
Note that "Karachi Harbour" is sometimes used as an alternative name for the Port of Karachi. However, the harbour is a larger body of water that also includes a fishing harbour, a shipyard, three naval bases, and several ferry terminals, as well as extensive wetlands and mangrove forests.
Apart from the seaports, there are a number ofdry ports, located elsewhere in the country, which allow goods to undergo customs checks away from the dock side.[1] Six major dry ports are run byPakistan Railways:[2]
Fishing boats at Karachi Fish HarbourView of Gwadar Fish Harbour
There are a number of fish harbours, most of which were built from 2002 onwards but have been controversial because of damage to the local environments. The harbours are managed by the provincial fisheries departments of Sindh and Balochistan.[4]
ThePort of Keti Bandar inThatta District, in the western part of theIndus River Delta, was a thriving port until the early part of the 20th century but now consists of a fishing jetty and a coast guard jetty for thePakistan Maritime Security Agency. There was a proposal by the federal government to build a new port in 2007, which came to naught.[11] More recently a new proposal has been put forward in April 2024 by the Sindh provincial government.[12]
ThePort of Sonmiani, inLas Bela District, currently consists of a fish harbour at the town of Damb, about 4 km (2.5 mi) northwest of Sonmiani as well as a coast guard jetty for the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency, a kilometre to the north of the fish harbour. In March 2007 the federal government announced a proposal to build a major new port at Sonmiani (tentatively titled Aladdin Port).[13][14] The provincial government carried out a survey of the area as preparation for a new port, together with allocating thousands of acres of land for future construction.[15] However, the plans never materialised.
