LAHORE: A feasibility study for establishing a state-of-the-art industrial estate/zone in Sialkot at 2,000 acres is underway by the Punjab Industrial Estate Development Management Company (PIEDMC).

“Unfortunately, Sialkot — Pakistan’s largest sports and surgical goods exporting hub — has no regular industrial estate. That’s why we are dealing with this issue on a priority basis in a bid to gather at least major industry at one place and provide it with a congenial environment,” PIEDMC Chairman Syed Nabeel Hashmi told Dawn on Saturday. “Industrial estates at Sahiwal, Muzaffargarh, Okara and other cities are also being planned since we need major economic zones to expand and cater to the industrial needs of the country,” he added.

Sialkot has 1,500 major and over 10,000 small industrial units scattered around the city and its suburbs. The Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry too raised this from issue time to time but no one in the past bothered to develop a dedicated industrial estate at one place.

“The city has two main industries — sports and surgical — which also outsource manufacturing of various items to the small industry/vendors.

So we plan to at least house as many as 700 major industrial units at the estate,” Mr Hashmi said and added that the country needed economic zones consisting each of 5,000 acres or so in various parts of the country. The PIEDMC board had held three meetings so far to finalise plans related to estate development in Sialkot and other cities, he said.

According to a spokesman for the PIEDMC, a piece of land measuring 1,000 acres has initially been indentified near Sohawan Wali on Sialkot motorway for launching the project.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2021