HYDERABAD: 300 acres of land acquired for Hyderabad Site
Bureau Report
HYDERABAD, Dec 3: The Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (Site) had already paid Rs150 million to the Sindh government for 300 acres of land the Hyderabad Site required for expansion, said managing director of Site, Mohammad Rasheed Solangi, on Sunday.
He said at a meeting with the members of Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) at the chamber’s secretariat that the planning and development work would be started immediately after the Site management was handed over possession of land.
He said that tenders of Rs15 million had been floated for the construction of roads and other development works in the Site area. Rs400 million would be spent on the improvement of infrastructure in Site in the next fiscal year, he said.
Mr Solangi said that a summary had already been submitted for the establishment of treatment plants in Karachi, Kotri and Hyderabad Sites and stressed that encroachments in the Site areas would not be tolerated.
He said that he had issued strict instructions in this regard and the work on removal of encroachments would start within next 24 hours. He sought proposals for the installation of streetlights in the area and said he would also speak to the district government to solve the problems of the Site area.
HCCI President Haji Mohammad Yaqoob demanded a seat on seat on the board of directors of Site and pointed out that the Hyderabad Site had been established as far back as 1950 and its expansion had now become inevitable.
He said that land grabbers had encroached upon hundreds of acres of Site property and demanded that they should be removed without further delay. The industrial units were not getting adequate water and were compelled to get water through tankers because the 40-year-old water supply system in the area had already outlived its life, he said.
He stressed the need for replacing the old and worn-out system on priority basis.
The chairman of the chamber’s subcommittee on Site affairs, Emad Siddiqui, said that the area was being supplied adulterated water as the recently established Rs3 million filter plant was not functioning.
He said that the industrial units were getting damaged when sewage overflowed from HDA’s sewerage drains into industrial plants and urged the Site management to construct its own water disposal system as well as a treatment plant.
He said that crime was on the increase in the absence of streetlights in the area and stressed the need for a fire brigade. Secretary of Site Samiuddin Siddiqui and chief engineer Shams Sehto also attended the meeting.
