Dairy village, meat processing zone to be developed in Bhambore

‘Modern village’ to have its own sewerage system, road linked to highway.

KARACHI:

The Sindh government has proposed a Rs1.5 billion dairy village and meat-processing zone in Bhambhore to target the local as well as export markets.

After the budget is announced, potential partners will be sought. According to an official, it will initially be set up over 1,300 acres but over 1,200 more acres can be reserved for expansion. The zone will be located 58 kilometres from the Karachi airport and 78 kilometres from the Karachi port.

According to the proposal, the site will be divided into areas for dairy and meat production - 100 five-acre plots will be given to each sector.

Milk-processing plants, chilling units, feed mills, a livestock and fodder market, slaughterhouses and a meat-processing zone will be established.

The dairy village and meat-processing zone would have their own drainage and waste disposal system with sewerage treatment on site. A 16-kilometre access road linking the facility with the National Highway will be built as part of the project.

“We have already conducted a feasibility study, the land has been surveyed and earmarked,” Laeeq Memon, the livestock secretary, told The Express Tribune.

He said they submitted the proposal in the last budget for the year 2010-2011, but it was dropped due to financial constraints.

Now the project will be included in the upcoming Annual Development Programme (ADP).

Officials of the Board of Investment (BoI) have been given the task to market for it in its imminent investors’ conference.

The livestock secretary rebuffed arguments of why such an economic zone is being established amid the country’s acute energy crisis. There will be no issue of energy as there is a potential to generate power by setting up a wind-mill project. The Government of Sindh has already inked an agreement with a Korean company for the generation of at least 200 megawatts in two years. “The site lies in a wind corridor with an average wind speed of 7.5 metres per second. We could have a large windmill farm,” he said.

The secretary said that they have formed the Sindh Dairy and Meat Development Company under the Companies Act to bolster the livestock sector through micro credit, micro enterprises and research development. According to a senior government official working at the planning and development department, the government comes up with different ideas all the time but they is hard pressed to implement them. “Only 10 to 15 per cent of the development budget was used this fiscal year.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2011.