RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Korangi Association of Trade and Industry’s (KATI) president Rashid Ahmed Siddiqui has urged the government to take immediate measures for early completion of energy projects.

He said that prolonged loadshedding and frequent power outages have, on the one hand, created number of problems for industries and, on the other, made the citizens lives miserable. Moreover, lingering energy crisis had badly affected the country’s economy whereas cost of the ongoing energy projects have increased manifold due to inordinate delay in their completion, he added.

Deploring over decline in exports, Siddiqui attributed it to serious energy and water crises being faced by industrial areas since long. “In fact, production has been badly affected by the shortage of water, power and gas,” he lamented.

Complaining about frequent power outages in Korangi industrial area, he said several industrial areas are without electricity for the last several days.

He warned that persisting power and water crises will result in closure of industrial units, thereby creating unemployment problem. The KATI chief urged all political parties to jointly recommend measures for early resolution of energy and water crises in the country. He also demanded of the government to construct more and more dams in the country to help resolve lingering energy crisis.