The establishment of the proposed Small Industrial Estate near Northern Bypass is in doldrums due to the negligence of the concerned officials. Sources in Sindh Government informed Business Recorder here on Friday that a small industrial estate was proposed over an area of 100 acres beside Northern Bypass at the time of its planning.
The project was aimed at promoting the small and cottage industries in the province keeping in view their importance in creating vast employment opportunities with less capital. The Sindh Small Industries Corporation (SSIC) was assigned the task to adopt necessary measures for the project, being supervised by the Sindh Government's Department of Labour, Transport, Industries, Commerce and Cooperation.
The sources said that the SSIC was not only responsible to develop the infrastructure at the proposed site of the industrial estate but was also assigned a task of allotting plots to the investors interested in establishing small industries at the site. The sources claimed that no progress has been made so far on both the matters and the SSIC's negligence might delay the establishment of the zone as per plan.
The process of the allotment of plots, due to be completed by the end of October 2007, is still in progress, sources maintained adding that the unnecessary delay in the matters is irking the small traders. It is worth mentioning here that the traders, intended to set up small and cottage industries in the estate, have already submitted the token amount as per the condition set by SSIC for allotment of the plots.
Sources claimed that the traders were asked to submit their applications for allotment of the plots with a token amount of Rs 100,000 for 500 sq yards plot. For plots of 250 sq yards, token amount of Rs 50,000 was required to be submitted, they added. The SSIC, sources said, has taken no measures so far to accelerate the process of allotment and infrastructure development.