Sialkot Tannery Zone project reviewed

Deputy Commissioner Adnan Mehmood Awan has said that Sialkot’s leather industry makes a major contribution to Pakistan’s exports.

An annual foreign ex-change earner of $1 billion, the leather industries across Pakistan had the potential for immense growth owing to abundant availability of raw material and skilled manpower, he said.

Speaking at a meeting organised to review the Sialkot Tannery Zone project and the shifting of tanneries working in the city to the zone, Awan high-lighted the significance of promoting the leather industry in accordance with the international environmental laws and standards.

The Punjab Environment Protection Department has provided Rs300 million for the purchase of 400 acres of land for the Sialkot Tannery Zone, Punjab Small Industries Corporation has given Rs500 million for a grid station and natural gas supply while the Ministry of Commerce has extended a soft loan of Rs1.17 billion for civil works and infrastructure.

So far, an amount of Rs2 billion has been spent by the government on establishing the tannery zone, the aim of which is to relocate more than 280 tanneries causing pollution in the city of Sialkot.

Project Manager Mohammad Atif, while giving a briefing about construction work on the tannery zone, said that boundary walls of the project, the main gate, site office, stores, flood protection embankment, cleaning and increasing the capacity of Dogri Nullah-II, and internal electrification had been completed 100% while the construction of roads, a 21-megawatt grid station, electric poles for high-tension and low-tension transmission, civil work on the grid station’s control room and transmission yard was in progress.

The most important part of the project was the establishment of a common effluent treatment plant for the chemically contaminated water coming out of tanneries, on which work was in progress, added Atif.

Inspector Environment Shahid Ali Dogar was also present in the meeting.