KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has approved establishment of two special economic zones — in Nooriabad and Bholari — and decided to hand over the possession for formally launching the Dhabeji Special Economic Zone, near Karachi.

He made these decisions while presiding over two different meetings on Monday. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, and others.

Presiding over the third board meeting of the Special Economic Zone Authority (SEZA), the CM approved two applications under which two special economic zones would be established.

The meeting was informed that the Services Industries Limited had collaborated to set up a mega production facility for the manufacturing of tyres to serve the demand of the domestic market as well as export to other countries.

Says 26 more patients died of coronavirus across the province

It was further informed that the project cost was estimated at $250 million and the targeted production capacity was said to be 2.4m tyres per annum.

The meeting was told that it would be set up on land measuring 50 acres in SITE-Nooriabad and the project would export around 85 per cent of the total production capacity to other countries.

The chief minister approved the request for establishment of a service special economic zone.

The CM was also briefed about the status for the Naushahro Feroze Industrial Park, which would primarily based on agro food.

The purpose of establishing the industrial park was to promote the agro-based industrialisation in the province as per international standards.

The zone will cater to the trade and industrialisation needs of the country. It will be established over an area of 80 acres.

The chief minister endorsed the applications for SEZ status for the Bholari Special Economic Zone.

The Bholari Special Economic Zone is Pakistan’s first private sector special economic zone situated at Bholari in district Jamshoro on the M-9 Motorway (Karachi-Hyderabad).

Its objective is to promote industrialisation in the country, which will positively contribute towards strengthening the economy of the province of Sindh and Pakistan as a whole.

It will be established over an area of 282.5 acres with an investment of over Rs20 billion.

BoR asked to hand over land to DSEZ

Chairing another meeting of the Dhabeji Special Economic Zone (DSEZ), the chief minister directed the Board of Revenue (BoR) to hand over the possession of 1,535 acres of land to DSEZ so that further process of development of the zone could be started.

The meeting was informed that the provincial government had allocated 1,530 acres being developed as DSEZ in Thatta near Karachi.

It was informed that a priority project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would facilitate the potential investors of China and other countries to either start new enterprises or transfer their facilities to Pakistan.

The DSEZ is being developed on a public-private partnership mode with an investment of over $50bn. The project will generate over 50,000 jobs for skilled and unskilled youth.

Mr Shah approved the future extension of 1,500 acres and directed the authorities to speed up the work of water supply, infrastructure and external network.

He was told that multiple bids had been received from the potential developers for the development of the DSEZ and were currently under evaluation.

The chief minister directed the BoR for immediate allotment of land to NTDC and construction of a grid station at the doorstep of the zone.

It is worth mentioning that the federal government had approved Rs3.94bn for construction of a dedicated grid station for this project.

26 die, 546 test positive overnight

Earlier, the CM said that coronavirus claimed 26 more lives and infected 546 others overnight, lifting the death toll to 2,019 and tally of the cases to 113,553 in Sindh.

In a statement issued here from CM House, he said that overnight 897 patients recovered.

“The number of patients recovered so far has reached 92,934 that constituted 81 per cent recovery rate,” he said, adding that 546 new cases of coronavirus emerged when 7,069 samples were tested which constituted 8pc current detection rate.

He added that so far 649,917 samples had been tested against which 113,553 cases were diagnosed that came to 17pc overall detection rate.

According to him, currently 18,600 patients are under treatment, including 17,824 in home isolation, 64 at isolation centres and 712 in different hospitals.

He added that the condition of 535 patients was stated to be critical, including 75 shifted to ventilators.

Mr Shah said that out of 546 new cases, 179 belonged to Karachi. They include 50 in district South, 38 each in East and Korangi, 27 in Central, 19 in Malir and seven in district West.

He added that Khairpur had 29 cases, Ghotki 21, Sukkur 18, Tando Mohammad Khan 17, Sujawal and Jamshoro 15 each, Larkana and Jacobabad 13 each, Naushahro Feroze 11, Umerkot and Matiari nine each, Dadu and Thatta four each, Sanghar three and Shaheed Benazirabad and Badin had one case each.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2020