KARACHI, March 4 Paucity of funds and inconsistency in policies owing to frequent changes in board of directors of Pakistan Textile City have not only resulted in delay but also in cost escalation of country`s first world class industrial hub.

This was stated by Zaheer A Hussain, chief executive officer of the Pakistan Textile City Ltd, while addressing media at its head office in FTC building on Wednesday.

The CEO was critical of the casual attitude of the shareholders in arranging much needed funds resulting in unaccomplishment of different development targets.

Awarding of contracts starting from designing, development and land utilisation plan up to hiring of technical advisors for 250MW power plant and combined effluent treatment plant for textile city have been completed or are in advance stage, he said.

However, further progress has been stalled owing to shortage of funds as the PTC has so far received only Rs1.25 billion out of which Rs1 billion had been paid towards cost of land to the Port Qasim Authority (PQA).

The Pakistan Textile City, a public private joint venture, is spread over 1,250 acres of land in eastern industrial zone of Port Qasim and is conveniently located at 6 km from the National Highway.

Mr Hussain expressed concern over the current situation and said that even after increasing the authorised capital from Rs1.1 billion to Rs2.2 billion the required funds from shareholders are not forthcoming.

The federal government being a major shareholder of up to 45.45 per cent has so far contributed nothing and only twice issued guarantees of Rs250 million each, he exhorted.

Upon increasing authorised capital, he said, the National Bank of Pakistan gave Rs50 million and the Sindh government having a share of 9.09 per cent in the equity contributed Rs100 million.

However, the CEO said that so far around Rs1.4 billion had been spent, which includes Rs1 billion on land and the remaining on acquisition, leasing, approval of master plan and leveling and grading of land.

Responding to a question he said that the estimated total cost of the textile city would be around Rs14 to 15 billion and in case time is further wasted it may go even higher.

He disclosed that around 500 acres of land near Gulshan-e-Hadeed is being acquired from the provincial government for establishing workers colony, which will have all facilities, including hospital, schools, and playground etc.

The CEO said that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board has already started work for laying 23 km long and 48 inch pipeline but the PTC has yet to start work on internal roads and on utilities network. All sort of development work has come to a standstill because of shortage of funds, he asserted.

The state-of-the-art project having world class infrastructure facilities was conceived in 2003 and the land was acquired in 2007. Many foreign investors showed keen interest in the project but the delay was depriving the industry of a WTO and ISO compliant textile processing zone.

In a sort of veiled criticism the CEO said that under public-private joint ventures a lot many new ideas come forward but equally diverse interests also emerge, which retard the pace of development.

Some board members are keen to keep the cost of land low, while others want to cut expenditure by compromising over quality. If these views are taken into consideration the textile city would be yet another sub-standard industrial estate like those already existing across the country, he added.