PASDEC Vows To Develop Marble Sector
ISLAMABAD – Marble and Granite is an emerging and promising sector of Pakistan which has huge potential of investment, export and livelihood. It needs to transform into dimension stone industry through adopting mechanized quarrying techniques and value addition.
This was stated by Mr. Khalid Mahmood Chadda, Chief Executive Officer Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), in a briefing on marble and granite sector development at PASDEC Head Office. Mr. Ihsanullah Khan, CEO PASDEC, briefed him about PASDEC’s achievements and marble and granite sector development on modern lines.
He informed that PASDEC has developed number of quarries across the country with state of the art machinery for extraction of marble squared blocks.
The mechanized quarrying experience has brought satisfactory outcomes and now mine owners are expressing their interest in modern quarrying practices. PASDEC intends to eliminate the blasting and reduce stone wastage from 85 to 45%, he added. He pointed out that export quantum of marble and granite has increased many folds.
Apart from modern quarrying PASDEC will establish five Marble Cities, industrial estates, in FATA, Risalpur, Chitral, Loralai and Islamabad. These projects will be setup under international business and industry standards supervised by international experts. The Marble City shall have tremendous investment and growth potential for entrepreneurs based on high end stone technology industrial estates, custom facilities, and state of the art services combined to create the largest and most technologically advanced industrial park for dimension stone industry in Pakistan.
The work has been started on Mohmand Marble City and Marble City Risalpur at full swing.
Mr. Khalid Mahmood Chadda, Chief Executive Officer Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) appreciated the efforts of PASDEC for sector development and assured his full support.