KARACHI: The work on Thatta Cement project in Sri Lanka has come to a screeching halt. The project envisaged cement grinding, storing and bagging plant.

The company informed investors on Friday that the project was ‘temporarily suspended’ as the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) had not executed the Land Lease Agreement (LLA), despite the fact that basic engineering of the project was completed by the Thatta Cement Company (Pvt) Limited, a subsidiary of Thatta Cement Company.

The CFO and Company Secretary Thatta Cement, Muhammad Taha Hamdani, also complained in a filing with the capital market regulators that SLPA had also signed agreement with another business venture of car transshipment in close vicinity of the proposed cement project “without anticipating the expected operational conflict which now appears to cause hindrance in setting up the proposed cement project within the layout originally planned by SLPA.”

The company official stated that further progress on the project would recommence “as soon as the LLA is signed with SLPA.”