KARACHI, Aug 11: More than 64 per cent industrial units have become sick at Nooriabad due to a variety of reasons, including withdrawal of tax incentives, lack of water supply and slump in the textile sector.

This information was given to Sindh Industries Minister Rauf Sidiqui who recently visited the site.

He directed the department concerned to provide every help to owners of sick industries to persuade them to open their closed units and start production.

The minister said the present government had embarked upon a plan to expedite industrialization, especially in the interior of Sindh, and it would give incentives to new industries providing jobs to the people.

He expressed the hope that laying of water line from Keenjhar Lake to Nooriabad at a cost of Rs1.2 billion would help revive those units which were closed due to shortage of water in the estate.

According to the data released by the Site Ltd, of the total 57 units, 38 are sick. The number of under-construction units is seven while there are 954 open plots awaiting investors.

Meanwhile, president of Executive Club of Nooriabad Trade and Industry Kanwar Zia-ur-Rahman told Dawn that 10 textile units were also temporarily closed due to slump in the sector. He said with the availability of water several processing and dying units would return to the site which has all the infrastructure better than any other site in the province.

He said that Nooriabad site was set up in 1985 during the Benazir government which in a bid to initiate industrialisation in the interior of the province had declared the area a tax-free zone.

However, the successive government withdrew these incentives which made a negative impact on investors sentiments.

With the establishment of Gadoon Amazai industrial estate in the NWFP, with most attractive tax-free incentives, about 20 to 22 units from Nooriabad shifted to that zone.

With the availability of gas to the site during the caretaker regime, headed by Mohammadmian Soomro, about 18 investors, including 12 new ones, returned to the site.

He further said that many smaller units wound up their operation due to transport problem faced by workers who had to travel from Karachi and Hyderabad to the site.

Kanwar Zia expressed the hope that with the availability of abundant water from Keenjhar Lake on which the minister is taking personal interest, the hustle bustle of Nooriabad, which has the entire necessary infrastructure, including uninterrupted power supply, would come back.