LAHORE, May 4: Governor Khalid Maqbool approved on Tuesday the upgradation of Institute of Handloom and Home Textile Technology, Multan, as a constituent college of the Bahauddin Zakariya University.

He approved the upgradation at a meeting which was attended, among others, by Bahauddin Zakariya University vice-chancellor Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry. All legal requirements in this connection would be fulfilled in a month, the governor said.

He said the Rs350 million upgradation project would go a long way in the development of Multan. The institute's six-month certificate and three-year diploma courses in different trades would continue whereas BSc Textile Chemistry degree classes would be started after the installation of equipment and appointment of qualified faculty, he added.

The governor hoped that it would be possible to turn Multan into a hub of textile industry after the implementation of the WTO regime in 2005. The decision to upgrade the institute had also been made in this connection, he added.

The meeting was told that the government was considering setting up of a textile village in Nisar Colony, Multan, on 50 acres of land where the graduates of the institute could install powerlooms through easy loans.