Textile City to provide 80,000 jobs: Shaikh

‘City to operate as a world class industrial zone’.

KARACHI:

Textile City, being built in the eastern area of Port Qasim in Karachi, will provide jobs to about 80,000 people, said Federal Minister for Finance Hafeez Shaikh on Saturday.

“It is one of the mega projects of the country which is being built with public-private collaboration at an estimated initial cost of Rs1.5 billion for infrastructure facility. It will be spread over a covered area of 1,250 acres,” he said while talking to journalists after presiding over a meeting with project stakeholders.

“The project is very important for the country to enhance its textile exports,” he added. Shaikh further said that the Textile City will have 800 plots covering all ancillary units of the textile industry. He said that the Textile City will have a 250MW electric supply and will have 20 million gallon of water supply per day.

“The ECNEC (Executive Committee of National Economic Council) will hopefully give its approval next week regarding the water supply,” he added. The minister said that all efforts were being made to provide all the facilities for the establishment of a modernised textile city.

Textile City CEO Zaheer Khan said that the vision was to operate a world class industrial zone dedicated to value added textiles and to project Pakistan as a textile hub.

Moreover, he said that the City will be established by next year around summers which will be managed by a highly professional team. The city will have one window operation, utility supply, treatment plant and other facilities, Khan added.





Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2011.