KARACHI, March 27: The Sindh Industrial Trading Estates (Site) will develop third phase of the Super Highway Industrial Estate on a 5,000-acre area for which land has already been acquired from the Sindh government.

This was stated by Site managing director Gul Muhammad Rind during his meeting with Aptma members here on Saturday.

The Site MD said that a separate portion of the new industrial estate would be allocated to the Aptma members, and the association would be consulted before allotting land to its members.

Besides this, another 2,000 acres of land would be developed for an industrial estate at Nooriabad and 300 acres in Hyderabad for the same, he added.

After listening to the problems and issues raised by the Aptma members, the Site MD, on the spot, formed a three-member committee which he will head. The committee, he said, would regularly meet once in a month and would have one member each from Aptma (Sindh-Balochistan zone), and Hyderabad.

Mr Rind assured that he would personally handle all matters pertaining to Aptma (SB zone) and asked Site chief engineering Mr Soomro to solve their problems on priority basis.

Similarly, he said a four-member committee would be set up to look into the problems of Hyderabad and Kotri industries. The task of the committee will be to look into day-to-day problems of the industry and hold weekly meetings.

Mr Rind promised the Aptma members that their suggestion would be incorporated in the next budget and hoped that most of the roads in these industrial areas would be funded in the next budget.

Aptma (SB zone) chairman Dewan Ayub Khalid drew the attention of the Site MD towards urgent need of having fire tenders in the Kotri industrial area. He also raised the issue of pollution and huge garbage in the area.

Mr Khalid informed the Site MD that some industries were throwing their refuse and garbage in the open plots or on the road side, which created problems for general public, besides giving ugly look.

Some of the members complaint that due to heavy pollution in Kotri and Nooriabad industrial areas workers are suffering from fatal disease like Hepatitis-B and C.

Mr Khalid also informed the official that a detergent company in Kotri was causing a lot of pollution and there was an urgent need to stop this.

He said that due this pollution, in a short period of one year, 22 workers died of Hepatitis-B and C, and the situation was worsening. Similarly, he said some industries in Nooriabad were also causing heavy pollution.

Some members raised the problem of exorbitant water bills and said that many industries, which had been closed down, were still getting huge water bills.

Problems related to drainage and garbage were also raised and it was pointed out that the Central Avenue, Site, Karachi, had turned into a garbage ground, and the drainage lines were chocked and overflowing.