The story of development
Federal B. Area in Karachi has one of the most important and productive industrial
estates in the country. It ranks among the top few as a foreign exchange earner and it is the biggest hub of small and medium sized units in the province.
It was established in the 60s and now accommodates over two thousand industrial units, almost 90% of which are export oriented, earning huge amounts of foreign exchange for the country, besides being a source of revenue for the federal and provincial exchequers and providing jobs to thousands of skilled and unskilled workers, a large section of which constitutes women folk of the area.Read More
At last, the WTO conditionality’s became fully operative since 1st January 2005 and it had become a threat for the existence of this export oriented industrial area. Only then, the government could realize the grave situation and decided that infrastructure facilities would be provided to this sector of trade and industry to help transform it to fit into WTO regime for the survival of country’s exports.The President of Pakistan then came to our rescue. In a meeting with industrialists of Karachi at Governor House on July 13, 2005, he directed formulation of infrastructure development companies in industrial areas of Karachi. Purpose was to rehabilitate and upgrade the then existing infrastructure and identify the projects for future needs. He announced Rs. One billion from Federal Government while an equal amount was to be contributed by the provincial government as matching grant. Read More
Improvement and up gradation of infrastructure facilities helping to meet the WTO requirements and conditionality’s:
| Road works average 40’ wide completed | 5.27 Kilo meters |
|---|---|
| Storm water drains completed | 1.96 Kilo meters |
| Walk ways completed | 10.00 Kilo meters |
| Description of Works | Approved PC-1 Cost | Actual Expenditure |
|---|---|---|
| Roads | Rs. 207.96 (M) | Rs. 181.96 (M) |
| Storm water drainage & Walk ways | 38.449 (M) | 54.327 (M) |
| External Electrification/ Street lights | 9.812 (M) | 12.729 (M) |
| Consultancy services | 5.23 (M) | 4.874 (M) |
| Operational cost | Nil | 7.561 (M) |
| Total | Rs. 261.451 (M) | Rs. 261.451 (M) |
It will be a great injustice if we overlook to mention here about the extraordinary patronage and unstinted support we received from our worthy Minister for Industries & Commerce, Government of Sindh and Chairman, Sindh Industrial Infrastructure Development Board, Mr. M. A. Rauf Siddiqui; without which we could not have achieved so much and so successfully. No doubt, he proved to be a beacon of light for us in performing all this.
Since the partial funding from Sindh Government has been utilized fully, we are now looking up to Federal Government for release of her share of Rs. 250 million. As soon as it receives, we’ll be able to undertake further development schemes.
Just to perpetuate the memory of olden days, we are reproducing some pictures depicting the condition of the area once it your own judgment.