CM Murad Ali Shah urged to take notice of SITE’s pathetic condition

SITE Association of Industry President Suleman Chawla has expressed deep concern over the disastrous condition of infrastructure in the Sindh Industrial Trade Estate (SITE) in Karachi, the first and largest industrial estate of Pakistan, appealing to the chief minister to take notice of the situation and issue immediate orders for lifting garbage and repairing roads in the area.

The SITE Limited, the Sindh government-owned administrative body of the area, had completely failed to bring about any improvement in the infrastructure of the area due to a lack of funds, he said in a statement on Thursday.

He added that due to heaps of garbage and broken roads, it had become very difficult for owners and workers to reach factories, and the supply chain of exporting units had been affected.

“Due to inefficiency of SITE Limited, together with recent rains, infrastructure in SITE has worsened. SITE Limited has no system of lifting garbage, neither nullah- cleaning has been done completely, due to which, nullah filth and garbage can be seen everywhere in the SITE area, virtually transforming the area into a large Kachra Kundi,” said Chawla.

Apart from the filth and garbage, the broken and uneven roads had become a reason for an increase in street crime in the area. As vehicles slow down due to the broken roads, criminals take advantage, loot commuters easily at gunpoint and escape,” he said.

Chawla said that the SITE Association wrote many letters to the chief minister, requesting him to look into the affairs of SITE Limited and to visit the area, but in vain.

The high officials of SITE Limited were also taken around the area by SVP Saleem Nagaria and VP Farhan Ashrafi of the SITE Association of Industry, who particularly identified areas which needed urgent attention, but to no avail,” he said. “It seems that the Sindh government is no more interested in promoting industrialisation in the province.”

Chawla suggested that the government should cut expenditures being incurred on holding provincial assembly sessions and protocols of provincial ministers in the wake of the situation created by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis, and to utilise the money thus saved for the development of the city in general and its industrial areas like SITE in particular.