GUJRAT: The Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) has taken over the possession of 200 acres piece of land that had been acquired by the local administration for the establishment of phase-II of Gujrat small industries estate area.

The possession was taken by an official team being led by Gujrat assistant commissioner Khizar Hayat Bhatti whereas officials of local land revenue department, police and PSIC were also present.

Gujrat deputy commissioner Amer Shahzad Kang told Dawn here on Thursday that the 200 acres piece of land already identified by the stakeholders had now been mutated in the name of PSIC within the revenue record as a sum of Rs280 million had already been released to the account of the district administration.

He said the mutation and possession of the land had been an important development towards the execution of the project and now in the phase II the boundary wall would be constructed at the site.

Previously efforts by some political figures in the last PML-government of Hamza Shahbaz to shift the project’s existing proposed site near Upper Jhelum Canal in Saroki along Sargodha road to another location on Bhimbher road near Mehsam finally ended after the PSIC got the possession.

The phase-II had been approved by the previous Punjab government of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) on the proposal of PML-Q leadership in 2021 at the cost of Rs1.32 billion and a huge sum of Rs280m had initially been allocated for land acquisition last year.

The site was selected with the consent of the leadership of Gujrat Chamber of Commerce and Industry after a hectic discussion as the local business fraternity had been demanding the establishment of phase-II for the last more than three decades.

Hundreds of small and medium scale manufacturing units of electric fans, pottery and furniture have been operating from the residential localities of Gujrat city due to the non-availability of the specific area after the existing industrial area had been filled until 1990.

It is learnt that after the possession of land now the construction of boundary wall around the site will be done for which the tendering process is initiated by the concerned authorities and then road and other required infrastructures will be built as Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) is determined to complete the execution at the earliest.

The Punjab government had also established a new police station in the name of industrial area police station last year whereas several other road infrastructure projects are also under way around the site near Saroki.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2022