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LAHORE, Jan 22: The Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) will extend loans to the transporters for converting their buses from diesel to CNG fuel to help combat the rising pollution in major urban centres of the province.
“A scheme in this regard will be announced shortly,” Punjab Industries Minister Ajmal Cheema told a news conference here on Monday.
PSIC managing director Syed Mohammad Ali Gardezi was also present on the occasion.
The conversion of each bus would cost Rs500,000, Cheema said and added: “This amount will be paid back by the transporters in installments.”
He said PSIC was also providing loans worth Rs300 million for the purchase of CNG rickshaws under Chief Minister’s Green Punjab scheme.
He said out of 70,000 rickshaws plying on the city roads, only 1,000 were CNG-fuelled.
Ajmal Cheema said the Punjab government had offered incentives to all the automobile manufacturing companies for the production of CNG rickshaws. “I hope these companies will respond positively,” he said.
Talking about disbursement of loans by PSIC, he said the corporation had provided the facility to about 7,000 industrial units. “The (loan) recovery rate is 89 per cent, and it is going to increase in future,” he added.
He said an amount of Rs1 billion had been arranged for disbursement among industrial units.
Cheema said PSIC was also disbursing micro-credit among the artisans and cottage industry owners.
POWER PLANTS: Descon Engineering will complete Satpara Dam’s power generation plants, last 14km portion of Motorway (M-1) and Mangla Dam raising by the end of June this year.
Descon Business Development and New Ventures director Amer Kamran Khwaja said this at a news briefing here on Monday.
He said Mirani Dam, Mangla Dam Power-house and PHA Housing Complex were some of the other major projects being executed by the company.
He said the company was undertaking large-scale projects related to transportation, dams, highways, buildings and water resources management and contributing substantially to infrastructure development.
The company had also earned international repute owing to its Quality Health Safety Environment (QHSE) policy and high standards of working since its creation in 1977 and had a reasonable share of important projects in Pakistan and at other countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE and Qatar.
Answering a question, he said Pakistan had ample wind and solar energy resources which could be exploited for national development.
TRAINING: A two-day special outreach and training programme on agricultural credit will begin at the district council hall in Okara on Jan 24.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is organising the course in collaboration with the Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank Limited (PPCBL). —APP
