Faisalabad Development Authority (FDA) and other concerned government departments have agreed in principle to declare three out of nine industrial clusters as regular industrial areas, disclosed Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI).
He participated in a meeting held in FDA on the special directive of Mian Aslam Iqbal Provincial Minister for Industries, Commerce & Investment and told that the FDA has completed survey of the industrial clusters sprawling in different parts of the city. The meeting discussed the issues regarding the regularization of these clusters. However it was decided that meeting will recommend to the industries department to issue a formal notification for the regularization of three industrial clusters on priority basis.
The meeting was also attended by Director General FDA Amir Aziz in addition to representative of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA), Director General Industry, Prices, Weights and Measures, District Officer Industries, All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA), PTEA, Chief Officer Zila Council, DMD Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and Chairman Punjab Small Industries Corporation.
Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain told that most of the industrial units were located outside the thickly populated city areas which were inhabited by people in later phase.
"However due to the blunders of the people, industry had to shift once again only due to environmental issues", he said and added that industrialists had to bear heavy cost of relocation unnecessarily", he told. He told that industry was shifted on the pressure of the local administration but it is pity that these relocated units are not regularized even after the laps of many years and same situation may emerge once again after the construction of housing colonies in these industrial clusters.
He told that FDA had conducted survey and identified nine industrial clusters including Khurrianwala, Millat Industrial Estate, Sargodha Road, Maqbool Road, Jhumra Road, Odeon Street, Dost Steet, Samundri road, Rehmanabad and Ghulam Muhammad abad. However government departments are of the view that three industrial clusters including Millat Industrial Estate and Sargodha Road may be regularized immediately while Apparel, Embroidery and stitching units presently situated in congested residential areas may also be allowed to continue their operation at the same site but the water intensive industry must be shifted to M-3 Industrial estate.
The meeting also agreed to recommend immediate shifting of all utilities including gas, electricity and WASA connections whereas the existing connection would be permanently discounted for the wet industry.