The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Friday appealed to the Chief Minister Punjab to declare Katar Bund Industrial area as Industrial Estate as despite paying an amount of Rs 1 billion to the national exchequer, the area is without even the basic amenities.
The LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh raised the demand after having a meeting with four-member delegation of Katarbund Road Industrial Association led by its President Syed Mehmood Ghaznavi here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The other members of the delegation included Senior Vice President of the Association Mohammad Nawaz, General Secretary Chaudhry Mohammad Yousaf and Finance Secretary Mohammad Subhan. The LCCI president said that it seemed that the Katar Bund Road industrial area does belong to the Punjab government as despite being at a few kilometres away from Thokar Niaz Baig, it has completely broken roads and no sewerage system and lack of facilities that always discourage foreign and local buyers.
The LCCI President said that government should focus on improving the infrastructure and law and order situation in this industrial area and dacoities and theft are order of the day. The President Katar bund road Industrial Association Syed Mehmood Ghaznvi informed the LCCI President that the Katar Bund Industrial Area was established four decades back and as many as 150 small and medium industrial units are operating in this area today. They complained that both the provincial and the district governments had neglected the area and no development work, including the maintenance of infrastructure, was carried out in past one decade. Mehmood Ghaznavi said that the industrial units in the estate include a renowned multinational pharmaceutical company, food industry with a bread and milk processing plant and auto parts manufacturers. He said a transformer-manufacturing concern and a state-of-the-art plastic product unit were also operative in the area.
Mr Ghaznavi said there was no road network and pathways were uneven and bumpy, adding that dust spread all around whenever a vehicle plied on the roads. He said the sewerage system practically did not exist and polluted water could be seen accumulated around the industries. He said the Katar Bund industries were depositing Rs one billion as revenue every year, adding that the industries needed no favour from the government but simply sought the facilities that were provided to other industrial areas.
He said the law and order situation in the Katar Bund Industrial Area was pathetic, adding that theft of transformers in industrial estates was not heard of but in the recent past two transformers from the industries were stolen. He said the industrialists had to go from pillar to post to get connections for new transformers even after making full payments, adding that the bureaucratic hurdles in getting reconnection after transformers’ theft were the same as those of the new connection. He said the law and order situation had gone so low that even the labourers of the area were robbed.
