Port Qasim Authority to cancel lease of Textile City land

Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Chairman Rear Admiral (retired) Syed Hasan Nasir Shah said on Wednesday the country’s largest industrial zone will soon get back the 1,250-acre piece of land that it allotted to Textile City Ltd in 2006 on a 50-year lease. Speaking at the inauguration of an integrated logistics park set up at Port Qasim by an international firm, Admiral Shah said the PQA has received the cabinet’s authorisation to cancel the lease of the doomed project and transfer the pricey real estate back to the authority. The project, which was conceived in 2004 as a dedicated industrial zone for textile exporters within the PQA, hit snags before its take-off and was eventually shelved. However, the sizeable piece of land remained unusable for the PQA, which holds around 8,700 acres for industrial units. Speaking to Dawn on the sidelines of the ceremony, Admiral Shah said the PQA will sign a contract in the next two months for the establishment of a Rs5 billion combined effluent treatment plant — a modern-day necessity that was absent from the country’s largest industrial zone that has over 400 industrial units in operation.