PESHAWAR, Nov 10: The NWFP industries department is trying to determine the exact number of sick units in the industrial estates of the province. It plans to devise a strategy for their revival.

Officials said a committee of the department, which had representation of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) and Industrial Association Peshawar (IAP), started its work from Hayatabad Industrial following which it will be extended to rest of the estates.

The committee had been assigned to ascertain the causes of the sick units’ closure and prescribe measures for their revival, they maintained.

“We are looking for real sick industrial units so that they could be revived either through arranging fresh working capital or resolution of outstanding issues hindering their revival,” a committee member told Dawn.

According to him, a number of units could be revived with little efforts.

Officials at the Sarhad Development Authority (SDA) argued that majority of industrial estates had become “ideal market for real estate business”, adding that people invested money for better returns without setting up a factory.

The active involvement, they said, of local land mafia was causing shortage of plots for genuine industrialists and it jacking up the prices, increasing the cost of doing business.While quoting the example of Industrial Estate Peshawar, the officials said that the area had a total of 438 industrial plots, but only 202 industrial units were functioning.

The number of abandoned plots at the Gadoon Industrial Estate was 203, in Hattar 191 and 18 at the industrial estate in Nowshera, they said.

The official price of a plot of an acre at the Hayatabad industrial estate was Rs400,000 million, while in actual terms it ranges between Rs5 to Rs7 million.

The SDA, subordinate body of the industries department, was responsible for development and maintenance of industrial estates, but it too was unable to cancel allotments of plots, they said.