Nespak working on master plan of textile city: minister

Minister for Textile Industry Mushtaq Ali Cheema said on Saturday that the development work on 700 acres land of Textile City will begin soon. He was talking to newsmen after chairing the meeting of Pakistan Textile City Ltd (PTCL) Karachi at TCP head office. Secretary Textile Industry Syed Masood Alam Rizvi, CEO PTCL Zahid Zaheer and board directors attended the meeting.
He said that National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) was working on the master plan of the textile city for 1,250 acres of land.
Cheema said that this mega project would be completed at a cost of Rs 12 billion in two phases. The company has been constituted while the CEO has been appointed, he added.
The minister made it clear that there will be no further delay and he will personally monitor the progress on the project from now. This is the reason I have chaired this meeting of Saturday to expedite the work, he added.
To a question, he said that after completion, the Textile City in Karachi would generate two million jobs and earn a foreign exchange worth 2 billion dollars through textile exports.
He pointed out that after the development of land, the management of Textile City would hand over plots to textile manufacturers like dyeing, printing and processing units.
Cheema said that PTCL was trying to convince water board authorities to reduce charges of water supply. The water supply project will cost Rs 1 billion. At the same time, we are trying to pursue Sui Southern Gas Co to provide sufficient gas for captive power generation unit.
He said the plan to generate 50 megawatts of electricity through a subsidiary has been withdrawn and textile production units will be provided gas to generate their own power.
The meeting was told that government of Pakistan has paid Rs 250 million from its total share of 500 million equity, while Sindh government and other stakeholders mostly banks and financial institutions including NBP, Picic, Pak Oman, Pak-Kuwait, Saudi Pak have paid full contribution towards the equity of textile city.
Talking about the garment city the minister said that the government has asked PQA to provide 100 acres of land besides the textile city. He said PQA was ready to hand over the land at the agreed cost and the work on this city will also begin soon.
He pointed out that buildings would be provided to manufacturers at garment city on lease basis so that they can start production right away after setting up machines.