KARACHI, Feb 19: The Karachi Milk Plant (KMP), under its new management, is likely to be operational some time in August this year as all bottlenecks, including occupation of its land by the rangers, have been sorted out and its possession would be handed over to the Idara-i-Kissan, Lahore (IKL), it is reliably learnt.

A meeting held on Monday in this connection between representatives of the Sindh government and the IKL, presided over by Sindh Chief Secretary Mohammed Javed Ashraf Husain, sorted out all matters to their satisfaction.

The Sindh government had signed an agreement with the IKL for revitalization of the milk plant after due process of its offer and presentation last year in the light of the latter’s experience of running successfully similar milk plants in Lahore, Patoki and Islamabad after revitalization.

In Tuesday’s meeting the issue of audit was raised by the IKL and it agreed that the KMP’s audit would be carried out as was in the case of Lahore, Patoki and Islamabad milk plants.

The IKL representative informed the meeting that their firm already had placed order for the machinery required for producing powdered milk and likely to be installed by July this year, the sources said and pointed out that the delay for a few weeks was owing to delay in handover possession to the IKL.

Under the agreement, the plant would be handed over to the IKL in the first week of March so that the installed machinery could be repaired by replacement of its rusty, redundant and missing parts.

The Sindh government would make investment of Rs10 million while the rest of the cost of revitalization and installation of a new powdered milk plant would be borne by the IKL while, according to the terms and conditions, the profit sharing formula is based on the principle of fifty-fifty.

In the first phase the entire premises is being leased out for a period of three years with a view to assessing the success of IKL in delivering the goods which could be considered extension in case the project turned out to be successful.

With the KMP going into operation, not only a huge amount being spent on the import of milk powder which could be saved if locally produced milk powder would be made available, but also seek assistance from the local dairy.

Initially, the KMP had been allotted 37 acres of land, about 29 acre had been encroached while the remaining 8 acres area of the plant was also under the occupation of the Pakistan Rangers, traffic /FIA courts, election office, the livestock and fisheries department. Under the agreement, alternative arrangements have been made for their shifting to other places and the process is likely to be completed soon.

The plant, set up in 1965 at a cost of Rs6.785 million with the assistance of Unicef and FAO, was meant for controlling milk price, besides quality control. The plant received foreign assistance worth Rs18.252m from 1965 to 1979 from Unicef and the government of New Zealand and had been functional until 1980.

The total area of land allotted for the plant was 37 acres. However, most of the land has been encroached upon by mushroom growth of kutchi abadis in its vicinity leaving only 8 acres which has been saved from encroachments by the construction of a boundary wall.