SITE association shares its concerns

KARACHI:  The SITE Association has expressed its unhappiness with the work, or more accurately the lack thereof, of the government departments, especially the Sindh Industrial Trade Estate (SITE) Limited and Civil Defence.

The association’s chairperson, Dr Arshad Vohra, said that in the last six years, not a single penny has been spent by SITE Limited on the roads. “Around 40km road in SITE is run-down but they haven’t been repaired,” said Vohra. He also lambasted the Civil Defence for conducting good-for-nothing inspections. “Ideally, we should be sending our workers to the Civil Defence for training but they don’t do anything,” he said, adding that the Civil Defence’s inspectors only harassed the factory owners for their own gains.

The SITE Limited Chief Engineer Shamsuddin Sehto admitted that the roads were in a terrible condition, saying, “SITE Limited is financially weak but the Sindh government is now giving Rs400 million for the construction [of roads] out of which Rs100 million will be used for repairs and Rs300 million will be used through Sindh Works and Services Department.”

To a question regarding the designs of the factories in SITE, Sehto said that the plans for the factories are approved under their by-laws and if the plan is revised, they have to seek approval again.  “Sometimes factories make modifications without informing SITE Limited but then the responsibility falls on the owners. Our inspection committees check to ensure that all the factories are observing fire safety rules and other regulations.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2013.