KARACHI, Nov 27: The second meeting of the 11-member Board of Directors of the upcoming Textile City near Port Qasim is being held here on Monday to elect a chairman and take up an agenda of a dozen points.

It is the first meeting of the reconstituted board after the government decided to remove three federal secretaries and replace them with private entrepreneurs, who are S.M. Muneer, Dewan Yousuf and Razzak Teli. Textile Ministry Secretary Tehseen Iqbal will also attend the meeting for the first time.

Besides the chairman, the board will also decide on appointment of a full-time chief executive and secretary of the company.

For the Textile City in Karachi, a land of 1,250 acres is being acquired from the Port Qasim Authority, which will have a 23-km dedicated water pipeline, development of gas, sewerage, water and electric power supply and effluent treatment plant.

A public-private joint stock company has been set up with an initial capital of Rs1.10 billion. The federal government is putting in Rs500 million, while Rs600 million is being contributed by financial institutions, which are National Bank of Pakistan, PICIC, Saudi Pak, Pak Kuwait, Pak Oman, Pak-Libya, PIDC, Port Qasim and the Sindh government.

Till so far, commitments have been lined up for the supply of industrial water, natural gas and telecommunication network, and KESC has promised to give 2-3 megawatt of electricity during the construction phase.

The Textile City is being visualized an exclusive production area, which is expected to have 35 large scale units, of which 15 units would be of woven textiles, 10 units of knitwear, 10 units of specialized towels and textiles. Its requirement of water is being estimated at around 25 million gallons a day and 1.5 million cubic meters of natural gas. A 100-megawatt power plant is expected to be installed, while an effluent treatment plant will also be set up.

The sponsors of the project anticipate Rs12.5 billion investment in the first phase when 10 units will be set up with a production capacity of 400 tons a day. It is expected to generate 80,000 jobs, $2 billion export earnings and many other economic benefits.