KARACHI, Jan 10: Work on the first Combined Effluent Treatment Plant of Pakistan, being setup in Korangi industrial area for tanneries, has been stopped owing to a row over the contribution of industrialists to the plant.
The project was initiated in 2002 with an estimated cost of Rs521 million. The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) had pledged Rs334 million from its Export Development Fund for the plan while Rs146 million were to be given by the Pakistan Tanneries Association (PTA).
An amount of Rs20 million was granted by the Netherlands government as technical assistance while 70 per cent cost of the land amounting to Rs31 million was provided by the defunct Karachi Development Authority for setting up the plant.
But the EPB after releasing only Rs187.85 millions stopped further payments on the grounds that the PTA was not raising funds for its share.
Sources at the EPB states that the PTA has been able to contribute only Rs10 million, therefore the exports body apprehends that tannery owners of the industrial area may fail to give the remaining share, and raises the question that if the PTA cannot generate funds for the construction of the project then who will bear its operational cost of Rs50 million annually? The EPB demands of the PTA to submit a surety for the release of remaining share.
In the meanwhile, Gulzar Firoz, chairman of the PTA Environmental Management Committee and chief of the project, while talking to PPI said the tanneries body had so far contributed Rs40 million. He said the economic recession and considerable fall in the exports of leather had affected the process of raising funds. However, he said they were making efforts in this regard.
The chief of the project also said that a certain group of about 100 tanneries owners, with approximately 30 per cent funds in the share, was disagreed over the payment formula and demanded that big tanneries should increase their share for the plan. The PTA was trying to convince them and had offered that they could pay in installments, he added.
He said that if the EPB did not immediately release its remaining share the millions of rupees spent on the project would be lost in case of the plant’s closure. He also said the PTA with its effort and bargaining had saved about Rs51 million from the total estimated cost of Rs521 million.
About 200, that makes 90 per cent tanneries of Pakistan, are located in Sector 7-A of the Korangi industrial area. At present, 80 per cent of the civil work of the project has been completed.—PPI
