Ministers vow to upgrade industrial areas as they inaugurate road project in SITE

Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Industries and Commerce Minister Jam Ikramullah Dharejo laid the foundation stone of the construction project of 17 roads in the SITE area on Sunday.

SITE Association Patron-in-Chief Zubair Motiwala, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Qadir Mandokhel, MPA Liaqat Askani, former MPA Nadeem Bhutto, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board Managing Director Asadullah Khan and others were also present on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony, Sindh Minister for Information & Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said the foundation of an important project had been laid. He added that the longstanding demand of industrialists and local PPP leaders had been met with the start of the project.

He said the infrastructure development was very vital for promotion of industries. He recalled that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had also visited this area and assured of improving its infrastructure.

Nasir said 17 roads with the total length of 25 kilometres would be completed under the project along with two drains with the PC-I cost of Rs1037.73 million.

He assured industrialists that all issues of industrial areas would be resolved on a priority basis. The project would help flourish industries in the SITE area, which would strengthen the economy of the country and create new job opportunities, he remarked.

The local government minister stated that Rs100 billion had been earmarked for the development projects of Karachi for the coming fiscal year 2021-22, and projects worth Rs900 billion were already under way in the city with the cooperation of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and others donor agencies.

He maintained that the Sindh CM and his cabinet were working day and night to implement the development vision of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Nasir remarked that the promotion of industries was amongst the top most priorities of the Sindh government.

He also offered sub-soil water licences to industrialists and said the Sindh government was ready to issue as many licences as required by the industrialists so that the issue of shortage of water for the industries was resolved.

Dharejo said those who had ruled Karachi in the past left the city with nothing but extortion, corpses inside sacks, Kalashnikov culture and destruction. He added that the PPP believed in the development of the entire province, including Karachi, and under the direction of Bilawal, the infrastructure of the industrial zones across the province was being improved.

The industries minister said he was grateful to the PPP chairman and the CM for allocating Rs1 billion for the improvement of infrastructure in the industrial zones in view of the problems of industrialists. He added that with the help of the funds, work was being carried out on 17 development projects and it was expected that those projects would be completed in the current financial year. Due to incompetence and poor policies of the federal government, industries had suffered a lot and unemployment had increased, Dharejo claimed. He stated that the provincial government wanted industrial development in the province and sought cooperation of industrialists for that.

Earlier, Motiwala expressed his gratitude for Bilawal and Murad, saying that not only industrialists, but also common men and labourers would benefit from the roads project. He added that a committee comprising two members of the SITE Association and as many members representing the government had been constituted to monitor the development projects in the area.