Arzoo Textile is almost fully operational despite massive fire of May 8, said its Chairman of the Company Azhar Majeed Sheikh. He was talking to a group of journalists that visited the mills in Khurarianwala about 25 kilometres from here and physically visited the operational mills.
He said that fire of May 8 was a big fire, which completely destroyed 4-storey Admen block with 200,000 square feet covered area. He said that two precious lives were lost while financial loss has been estimated around 400-500 million.
He said that mill has become functional within one week and we are fully confident to achieve our export target of Rs 4000 million export target set for this year.
He said that contract to remove debris has been entrusted to a foreign (Denmark) trained firm. "It is trying to recover the precious items safely", he said and added that it will take another 2-3 weeks to clear the site for reconstruction.
He further said that sufficient financial help has been provided to the families of worker killed in this fire. Mian Zahid Aslam, Chairman, Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) also assured a financial help of Rs 200,000 to the family of fire fighter who had also lost his life in this fire.
Responding to a question about insufficient arrangements of fire fighting, Azhar Majeed said that the gadgets available with local fire brigade were not workable which caused unnecessary delay in controlling the fire in time. He said that fire brigades from other cities were called which managed to control the fire.
He said that now the industrialists have decided to purchase 10/12 new fully loaded fire-fighting vehicles through Citizen Community Board (CCB). Out of these, 4 will be given to Value Addition City (VAC) and remaining 8 would be at the disposal of Khurarianwala Industrial Association (KIA).
Although the fire was of disastrous proportions but the management, staff led by its chairman physically and workers performed the Herculean task of part the whole operation back on track within three days with their untiring collective efforts he concluded.