Boat Building at Karachi Fish Harbour By Aziz Sanghur.flv

Boat building-yard is located at Karachi Fish Harbour. Boat-building, once a major profession and growing industry related to fisheries sector. There has been quite a good number of professionals, experts in boat-building and well-experienced in different related fields, in Karachi. Local technical hands and workers in boat-building field are in great demand within the country as well as abroad.

Most of the professionals and workers live along the coastline, mainly near the harbour, Sandspit, Hawkesbay, Mubarak Village and in Ibrahim Hyderi, but a lot of them live in other parts of the city also.

According to an estimate, some 2,000 people are still directly employed in the trade and remain engaged in professional activities all the year round at the port and harbour. However, there exists no policy to ensure an improvement and bring about modernization in the field.

The boats with keel length of 20 to 80 feet are built at these yards with raw material mainly imported from South East Asia. A standard size boat requires row material costing more or less two million rupees. However, the estimate varies with the size and quality and can go up to Rs20 million.

The boats with a keel length between 40 and 50 feet take some 12 months to be completed and a builder earns a minimum of Rs50,000 per boat.

The Karachi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA) earns Rs5.67 million per annum from the boat-building yard and nearly the same amount is earned by the Karachi Port Trust (KPT). However, no funds are spared for training or advanced programmes for the boat-builders. Besides, there is no policy for the welfare of the workers and contractors.

Since a big majority of boat-builders resided on Bhit Island, off Keamari, conversion of sailboats on a large scale was witnessed soon afterwards on the island. First cargo launch was built at the island in 1954. However, in the following years, boat-builders moved to the localities around Khadda Market from where they had a better access to the fisheries and boat-building yards. Launching of the newly-built boats used to be from a creek in high tide season.

This place gradually turned into the centre of boat-building trade in the country. Boat-builders gained expertise and experience giving a boost to the industry.

Presently, cargo boats are in great demand in Gulf and Africa region and are usually registered in the UAE. There operation area is the waters between East Africa and Gulf.

Over the past two years, some 70 wooden fishing and cargo vessels of 50 to 80 feet keel length have been built in Karachi and sold to Gulf clients.

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