ISLAMABAD, Dec 24: The National Assembly was informed on Wednesday that a committee constituted for the revival of sick industrial units has recommended revival of 199 units employing 52,000 workers.

Parliamentary Secretary for Industries Haider Ali Shah informed the House during question hour that out of 2,530 sick units, the committee considered 391 cases.

He said currently there are 859 sick industrial units in the Punjab.

The government, he said, is working seriously for the revival of sick industrial units, and problems being faced by such units were being considered and necessary relief was being provided, including rescheduling and restructuring of loans and permission for payment of utility bills in installments.

He said that 5,900 Utility Stores were working at union council level across the country and 290 more stores would be opened soon in areas where such outlets were not available.

He said monitoring teams were carrying out periodical and random inspection of Utility Stores.

Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar informed the House that there were eight car manufacturing companies in the country.

He said factors causing an increase in prices of automobiles included depreciation of rupee against the dollar and high interest rates.

Industries minister Mian Manzoor Ahmed Watto told a questioner that there were 29 large cement factories in the country with an installed annual production capacity of about 39 million metric tons.

Punjab has the largest number of cement factories (11), followed by Sindh (nine) and NWFP (seven). There are two factories each in Balochistan and the Federal Capital Territory.