ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: The Privatization Commission is holding a bidding here on Thursday for divesting 85.29 per cent shares of Mustehkam Cement Limited and for the sale of the machinery of Bolan Textile Mills.

According to a PC press release issued here on Wednesday, Mustehkam Cement was a public limited company listed on the stock exchange and commenced its production in 1966 while its new unit went operational in 1981.

The company produced Portland cement. The plant is located at Hattar, Haripur and has a rated capacity of 630,000 tons per annum. The unit holds approximately 444 acres, while the factory area is approximately 146.3 acres. It was closed down in 1999 and employees were paid off GHS/VSS.

Bolan Textile Mills was a project of Iran Pakistan Industries (IPI) situated at Baleli, (near Quetta Airport), Balochistan.

The machinery of the mills (spinning, weaving, processing and auxiliaries) is being offered on “as-is-where-is” basis through a competitive process. The machinery is a part of fully integrated unit of 50,000 spindles, 1,100 looms with complete dyeing and finishing facilities of around 80,000 metres per day production capacity of variable widths ranging from 36” to 96”. The plant started production in January 1980 but was closed down in 1983.