Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Mian Manzoor Watto on Monday said nature has gifted Pakistan with huge reserves of marble and granite but unfortunately these could not be properly utilised.



If these resources were properly utilised it would increase economic development of the country as a whole as well as development of the concerned areas. The minister expressed these views during a briefing, which was given by Chairman Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC) on the special visit of Marble City Risalpur.



The minister said NWFP holds abundant resources, which if utilised would bring prosperity in the province. The government had realised and committed to develop the marble and granite sector on modern and scientific methods, which would collect huge amount of foreign reserves from international market.



Marble city Risalpur was a greater achievement in the development process of the marble and granite sector of Pakistan. He directed the PASDEC to immediately start the development process on marble city of Risalpur so it could be completed sooner. He also said that the Prime Minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani would formally inaugurate it in near future.



Marble city Risalpur was one of the mega projects initiated by Ministry of Industries and Production and it would provide a solid infrastructure to surrounding marble and granite processing units. The processing of marble and granite would be made according to modern techniques using state of the art machinery. The development of industrial zone in Risalpur would also offer job opportunities to more than 10,000 local people in the region but also provide training for their capacity building. Proper measures were taken to prevent environmental pollution by settling up a water treatment plant for recycling and reusing of water again and again.



The PASDEC was mandated to develop the marble and granite sector of Pakistan by establishing 10 model Quarries (mines) and 20 Quarry up-gradation all over the country to help boost up the exports. The first model quarry had already been established in Khuzdar, Balochistan where the extraction of square blocks was made possible using latest quarrying machineries. The traditional extraction method (blasting) has a very high percentage of wastage.



Up to 85 percent marble was wasted due to blasting, which means that most of natural reserve of marble and granite was heartlessly put to waste. He said the Ministry of Industries with the help of the PASDEC had imported modern machinery for quarrying and had setup two different machinery pools at Risalpur, NWFP and Marble City Gaddani, Balochistan. The federal minister asked for the mine holders to stop blasting immediately and benefit from latest machinery for quarrying on low rental basis from PASDEC’s machinery pool. This would prevent a major loss of marble with the extraction of square blocks.



The minister also said that the Marble & Granite sector holds more potential of earning foreign exchange than the agriculture sector and the government was fully convinced to invest and support this sector.



Chairman PASDE, Ihsanullah Khan beforehand briefed the minister about Marble City Risalpur. This industrial zone was spread over 185 acre of land and would establish over 100 marble processing units. Warehouse and Common Training Facility Centers (CFTCs) would also be a part of Marble City.



Out of the total investment, 50 percent investment would be made by the local investors and the remaining would be bared by the government.