KARACHI, January 2,2109: National Industrial Park (NIP) has failed miserably to deliver on its commitment to provide Bin Qasim Industrial Park (BQIP) necessary utilities and infrastructure putting five companies’ combined investment of PKR 35 billion in jeopardy.
According to sources, Tecno Auto Glass Ltd, Hi-Tech Alloy Wheels Ltd, Horizon Steel (Pvt) Ltd, KIA Lucky Motors Pakistan Ltd and Barkat Frisian Pasteurized Egg Company (Pvt.) Ltd are nearing completion of construction of their industrial plants in Bin Qasim Industrial Park (BQIP), Special Economic Zone, National Industrial Park (NIP), Karachi, however, execution of lease agreements & permission to mortgage letters are still pending despite approval by Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) 3 months ago.
The Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP) is reluctant and non committal with no regard to the delay being caused to the new enterprises whose plants are either ready or due for commissioning soon. Unavailability of electricity, gas and water, delay in development of boundary wall, sewage connections and road network inside the industrial park are the major issues for the organizations in BQIP but NIP’s lethargy is making the situation worse.
Moreover, land for further projects is not being allocated as NIP and PSM wrestle on the price causing hardship to the new investors. So far purchasers of 250 acres have left NIP and gone to Punjab, including International Steel Ltd. (ISL), International Industries Ltd. (IIL) and Renault.
On industry’s query on status of its various deliverables, MoIP merely stated that process for awarding different contracts for civil works has been started but they did not share any timeline.
An official of one of the organizations on condition of anonymity said that K-Electric has already provided the requisite documents to NIP for release of payments so that work on the Electricity connection can begin, however, NIP is yet to update on this.
“The above critical issues have choked the implementation of our projects, resulted in time delays of almost two years and caused massive cost overruns (including impact of currency devaluation),” he added.
He said that thousands of direct and indirect job opportunities including dealer network, vendors and local suppliers hang in balance due to delay in provision of infrastructure and utilities.
