LAHORE: The Punjab Industrial Estates Development and Management Company (PIEDMC) has decided to establish its own 32-megawatt grid station at Quaid-i-Azam Business Park (QABP) to cater to the initial needs of industrial units to be set up in this park.

The ground-breaking ceremony of QATB - formerly named as Quaid-i-Azam Apparel Park - is set to be inaugurated this month by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“Since the park has already been provided with electricity load of 1.2MW, any local or foreign firm can set up industrial unit there right now. And there will be no shortage of electricity. Moreover, the boundary wall has already been constructed,” said an official source while talking to Dawn on Wednesday.

According to him, the layout and design of the park has been restructured in order to accommodate all industrial sectors instead of only textile sector. “The work on infrastructure like roads, sewerage, water supply, multi-purpose common facility centre and provision of underground electricity construction is under way, and according to initial estimate Rs25 billion will be spent on this,” he added.

He said previously there was a plan to establish new grid stations under the PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode. But it couldn’t be materialised since no one from the private sector showed its interest in this regard. Later, the government decided to fund this project and the PIEDMC too was asked to contribute fund to this project. The PIEDMC has already established grid stations at Sundar industrial estate. Another one has also been planned jointly by the PIEDMC and National Transmission and Despatch Company. Moreover independent grids have also been planned at Rahim Yar Khan, Vehari and Bhalwal industrial estates.

“All arrangements to supply electricity to the upcoming industrial units to be set up in this park have been completed. Even now, the supply of electricity can be guaranteed to any local or foreign industrialist seeking to set up their unit in this park,” confirmed PIEDMC Chairman Syed Nabeel Hashmi.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2020