KHYBER: The district administration is contemplating establishment of a ‘stone crushing zone’ in Bara in order to create job opportunities, promote industrial development and most importantly revive eight dysfunctional stone crushing units which were shut down when a military operation was launched in the area in 2009.

Deputy Commissioner Khyber Shah Fahad told Dawn that the initial work for the establishment of the said zone had already begun and the assistant commissioner Bara was assigned the task to determine the possibility of the execution of the said project at the Besai site near Shah Kas, where most of the stone crushing units were operating before 2009.

There are currently around 102 stone crushing units operating in different parts of Khyber, mostly in Bara and Jamrud, while most of these were established prior to the merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“All these units established before the merger were not adhering to the set official rules and regulations mandatory for establishment of any industry or unit and thus we are now in the process of registering them with the industries department and then acquiring no-objection certificates from various government departments in order to legalise their functioning,” the DC said.

Units closed in 2009 due to military operation to be revived

He however added that the major hurdle in creation of the ‘stone crushing zone’ and revival of the closed units in Bara was a case pending before the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding implementation of environmental regulations on such units throughout the province.

The Supreme Court has also formed a commission to recommend suggestions for effective implementation of environmental laws, he said.

Mr Fahad said that once these guidelines were issued by the Supreme Court, practical steps would be taken to bring together all stone crushing units to the proposed Besai zone in Bara where the administration would be able to easily implement environmental regulations and conduct inspection and monitoring of these units.

Ibrahim Afridi, an owner of a closed stone crushing plant in Besai, told Dawn that he along with owners of other dysfunctional units were more than ready to fulfil all the legal requirements to revive the closed units.

He however said that huge financial resources would be required to reactivate these units as most of the machinery was either stolen during the decade-long militancy period in Bara or destroyed by the militants.

He said the closure of these units in 2009 had rendered nearly 3,000 local residents jobless while the owners incurred losses to the tune of millions of rupees.

The deputy commissioner lauded the cooperation of the owners of closed units and said that the administration was also sharing videos with them (owners) about the new technology adopted by some Central Asian states in controlling environmental pollution caused by such units.

He said his administration was also aware of dozens of illegal stone crushing units operating in Jamrud and added that these would be immediately dismantled once the stay order they had acquired from the Peshawar High Court was vacated.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2022