HARIPUR, June 4: The Hattar Industrialist Association has demanded that all the inner roads of the estate be carpeted and the key Hattar-Taxila road be completed.

Malik Ashiq Awan, senior vice-president of the association, told reporters at his office that because of a lack of road network in the industrial area, not only the potential investors were shying away, but also the existing ones were forced to close their ventures.

There were over 300 industrial units at HIE but for myriad reasons only 140 were reportedly operating. Others had either made off with huge loans declaring their units insolvent or did not install machinery at all.

Mr Awan said that Hattar industrialists were faced with a plethora of problems, despite the fact that they had made a considerable contribution to the national economy.

He said that the HIE was the second largest industrial zone in the NWFP. It was established in 1983 with a promise that if the locals were provided job opportunities, the entrepreneurs would be given rebates and other facilities required for a fully-fledged industrial estate.

"But", he regretted, "the previous governments did not honour their word." Malik said that the incentives were withdrawn within five years of the estate's establishment while the promise of other facilities, like roads and fire brigades, went unfulfilled.

He recalled that the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) had been given a Rs120 million contract for building the Hattar-Taxila road on a BOT basis but as substandard material was used the road started crumbling within a week of its partial completion.

He said that roads were the backbone of an industrial zone and when this basic facility was not available the goal of boosting industrial production and creating job opportunities could not be achieved. He said that the HIE alone was contributing Rs30 billion annually to the state coffers but, in return, the industrialists remained deprived of the promised rights.

Meanwhile, Haripur Chamber of Commerce and Industry's chairman Tehsinul Haq Awan has expressed concern over the persistent shortage of wheat flour and maida in the NWFP. He said that if the situation remained unchanged the food industry in the frontier province would collapse.

Attributing the crisis to a ban on export of wheat to other provinces by Punjab, Mr Awan said that the current crisis would result in joblessness of thousands of industrial workers associated with the food industry.