LAHORE, Jan 29: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday took the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry on board on all its major initiatives planned for 2011 and discussed threadbare pros and cons of each and every project.

FPCCI's zonal chairman Tariq Shafi said the LCCI projects were great initiatives and would rightly address the question of country's economic survival and sustainability.

LCCI president Shahzad Ali Malik said the sole objective of having another dry port was to make the trade and industry competitive by reducing delivery time and cost.

He said the project was well on way and would be a fully equipped and would ensure cost-effective and efficient logistic solutions to promote economic activities in the region.

The LCCI president said that the successful models of private sector-managed dry ports already existed in the shape of Faisalabad and Sialkot dry ports.

He informed the participants that Faisalabad dry port had a capacity to handle 33,000 export cargo containers. It can handle as many as 5,500 import consignments per annum, having a value of over Rs80 billion.

The LCCI president said the Sialkot Dry Port can handle up to 29000 export cargo containers worth over Rs46 billion. Malik said that the proposed Sheikhupura dry port would be catering to trade and industry in Lahore, Sheikhupura and Gujranwala.

On Pakistan Water Front, designed by the LCCI to cope with water shortage in the country, the chamber president informed the participants that the chamber was working on an elaborate programme to take all stakeholders on board.

He chalked out a plan to visit all chambers of commerce on the first leg while it would also take technocrats and politicians into confidence.

Giving briefing on flood affectees rehabilitation project, the LCCI SVP Sheikh Mohammad Arshad informed the delegation that the chamber had initiated construction of 150 houses in flood affected areas.

He said projects costing over Rs20 million in district Layyah would be completed in a record time of three months.

He said work in Basti Manchar Mohana in Layyah district was in progress while a model village in Shahbazabad would be constructed as soon as government of Punjab completes town planning procedures for the proposed Model Village.

He said that by laying the foundation stone of this mega project, the chamber had become the first chamber of commerce to initiate construction in flood affected areas.

At first stage 40 houses would be constructed on emergent basis in Basti Manchar Mohana where devastation due to floods is about 90 per cent

Three committees comprising LCCI office-bearers and Executive Committee Members had already been formed to supervise the project and coordinate with the district administration so that it could be completed in given time.