KARACHI, Feb 11 The Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE Ltd) plans to revise trade fee and land charges for industrial units in the Site area, the country's largest industrial estate with over 3,000 units.

Sources at the SITE Ltd told Dawn that a 25 per cent increase had been proposed in transfer fee of industrial units and change of hands for unutilised plot, which are presently Rs400,000 and Rs500,000 per acre respectively.

The SITE also charges Rs100,000 per acre as trade fee and Rs80,000 per acre for sub-division of industrial plots. These rates will also go up.

There is also a plan to raise annual rent for industrial plots. The development charges (Rs100 per acre) and maintenance charges (Rs3,250 per acre) will also go up.

The charges will be increased after taking Site Association of Industry (SAI) into confidence and after the approval of the board of directors of the organisation.

The SITE Ltd will also increase water charges for industrial units as the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board has raised charges from Rs73 to Rs81 per 1,000 gallons. The SITE is already providing water to industrial units at a subsidised rate of Rs71 per 1,000 gallons.

Sources said that revision of charges for Site units has become necessary because the existing rates were fixed long ago.

The SITE Ltd presently administers eight industrial estates in Sindh while two more estates will be set up in Larkana and Khairpur.

Managing Director SITE Ltd Manzoor Ahmed Kanasro told Dawn that it was negotiating with a Japanese firm Careco for building a 50-MW power plant which would use waste as raw material to supply power to industries in Phase II of Super Highway Estate being developed on 1,000 acres.

Mr Kanasro said that to create a pollution-free environment it had been decided to set up combined affluent treatment plants at all industrial estates.