FAISALABAD, Jan 25: Local industrialists and exporters claim to have sustained a loss of over Rs100 million while more than 20,000 labourers including daily-wagers have been rendered jobless due to the closure of ancillary textile units here in the wake of gas-supply suspension.

Owners of sizing, printing, dying, bleaching, finishing and other allied units have lost millions due to suspension of the supply of gas to their factories.

Scores of daily-wagers can be seen sitting idle outside the factories in the hope that gas supply would soon be restored. However, there are indications that the supply would not be restored till Monday evening.

Local textile units normally produce an estimated three million meters of export-quality cloth a day. The production has plummeted in the absence of gas, forcing the exporters to close their units as well.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, All-Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association (APCEA) chairman Khurram Iftikhar said one-time closure of boilers spoiled all the cloth mounted on the machinery for printing purposes.

A boiler requires 12 hours to heat up and produce the required level of steam. In the meantime, the labour force sits idle.

Similarly, the chemicals required for colouring have to be re-mixed at a very high cost. The cost of production doubles while export consignments get delayed.

He said that textile exports worth Rs60 million had thus been disrupted in the wake of gas-loadshedding in Faisalabad zone.

He called upon the ministries of production, commerce, natural resources and finance to take cognizance of the situation and direct the agencies concerned to ensure continuous supply of gas to industrial units and save huge production losses and export disruption.

All-Pakistan Sizing Industries Association chairman Mirza Mohammad Shafique in a statement claimed that owners of sizing units and allied factories were sustaining huge financial losses due to continuous suspension of gas to their factories.