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ISLAMABAD: The Rachna Industrial Park has reportedly not been developed even after 14 years due to lack of interest by the respective governments.

Rachna Industrial Park consisting of 174 acres of land was launched in 2007 by the then minister of industries Jehangir Khan Tareen; it was to be a modern SME Park for the auto parts industry, located at a distance of 7km on an access road along Khanpur canal, off main Lahore-Sheikhupura road.

The project is owned by NIPDC, a Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) company, assigned to assist industrialization in the country by setting up industrial estates across the country. Rachna Industrial Park will be witnessing the 4th Minister in the shape of Hamamd Azhar during its development life since Jehangir Tareen.

The project could not be completed in the tenures of Pervaiz Elahi, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and Razak Dawood as Ministers of industries. Thirty odd companies booked plots in the estate over the period of 5-6 years by giving booking advances upto 40%.

A private Board that sits in Karachi runs NIPDC and their focus has been on estates in Karachi while Rachna has never been their focus.

Company’s funds and booking advances of Rachna Industrial Park customers were used to develop Port Qasim and Korangi industrial parks. Even a loan from a commercial bank by pledging Rachna industrial park land was diverted to projects in Sindh. The board has been serving the Karachi industry, at the cost of projects in other provinces of the country.

According to the stakeholders, real development on this site took place only in the last 2 years of the PTI government when Razzak Dawood took charge of the Ministry and bought Rizwan Bhatti as CEO of PIDC and gave additional charge to him for NIPDC.

Many customers of Rachna Industrial Park regard the board that sits and governs NIPDC from Karachi as aloof, lacking the ability to take decisions based on fairness, and also lacking a focus on customer care. Due to these reasons the Rachna project was delayed for years and years and a whole decade is now under the bridge.

These delays mean cost escalations, and the board has now put the entire burden of cost escalations by increasing the prices of the plots which were sold to the 30 odd customers that purchased industrial plots in the period from 2014-2018. These customers tell a tale of false promises of development that never took place on time. In fact, a large multinational paint manufacturer, and customer of NIPDC with 100% payment made, has decided to exit the park for better options available, namely Quaid-e-Azam Business Park and Allama Iqbal Industrial Park.

Millions of dollars of FDI could not be realised due to the inefficiency of NIPDC.

Legal experts say that the fines being levied are unlawful and challengeable in the court of law, and precedence available in the case of Sunder, where the court gave decision in favor of the alottees.

Many customers also say that the development company did not hold its side of the contract and are liable for damages incurred due to loss of investment and opportunity. Commitments on delivery schedules are available with the customers which can be presented in a court of law.

NIPDC is issuing letters of fines in batches, starting from smaller alottees, while the customers are getting organized and mustering support from within and outside the Lahore SME and business fraternity.

One of the stakeholders said that a Board that is weak and lacks capacity to take decisions is unlikely to resolve this issue and it is now up to the minister to take stock of the situation and show leadership and help resolve this matter and regain the confidence of the Small and Medium enterprises and industry, and give them the much-needed support to expand to create jobs and add value.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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