The soft launch of this project would held in April, said TDAP Secretary Inamullah Khan Dharejo at an interactive session with the representatives of value-adding textile export associations, here at Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association headquarters, PHMA House, on Thursday.

Prominent were Chief Coordinator PHMA and Chairman, Pakistan Apparel Forum, Muhammad Jawed Bilwani, Chairman of PHMA (South Zone) and senior exporters Khwaja Usman and Aamir Butt.

TDAP Secretary said this Federal Government ground-plus twenty floors building project will be constructed under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) with the estimated cost up to Rs 8 billion over next five-year period.

TDAP would bear thirty percent of the cost. It would consist of nine modern expo halls and a convention centre.

In the first phase, three halls would be constructed replacing the old ones in phases, Inamullah Khan Dharejo informed that TDAP secretariat and the offices of other trade related agencies would be shifted there.

He said that TDAP has 42 acres land on the site. TDAP would also pursue the concerned government quarters to retrieve its land on the site of Expo Centre being used by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) as marriage halls.

Originally, the land was allotted to PIA by Federal Ministry of Commerce for the use as an entertainment planet, he explained.       He discussed the export related issues with the textile exporters and assured all possible support and facilitation to them on behalf of TDAP.

He informed that TDAP was coming up with new models expo to better project Pakistan's potential.