The contact group, constituted earlier to expedite pace of work on the establishment of Carpet Nagar (village) in the vicinity of Peshawar was met under the chairmanship of the NWFP Governor, Owais Ahmed Ghani at Governor House and reviewed the progress in this respect.
The meeting besides the provincial Secretary Finance, Zia-ur-Rehman, Secretary to Governor, Arbab Muhammad Arif, the Chief of Smeda, Javed Iqbal Khattak, and representatives of Small Industries Development Board (SIDB) was also attended by the office bearers of the carpet manufacturers as well as the representatives of UNHCR.
The meeting was informed that three different sites have already been identified in the vicinity of Peshawar for the project and the process to purchase land will be initiated shortly, soon after the final decision is taken in this respect.
The provincial government, it was added has already made an allocation of Rs 25 million for the project in the current budget. The project envisaged constructing manufacturing-cum-housing units at the same site and the government has planned to develop 500 to 600 family units at the same site. However, it was decided that washing and finishing units will be established separately within the village.
The meeting after having a detailed review of the progress made so far on the project constituted a steering committee, comprising representatives of all the concerned government departments and organisations to help in materialisation of the project at the earliest.
The meeting was further informed that the UNHCR also intend to help in materialisation of the project. Speaking on the occasion, the governor said "the carpet weaving sector offers a lot of opportunities of employment to workers and we should ensure that the sector is developed genuinely."