This decision was taken in a meeting between Lieutenant General Abdul Qayyum, Chairman Pakistan Steel and a GHQ delegation of civil engineers, headed by Major General Imtiaz Hussain, Director General Engineers GHQ. The sheets would be sent to the affected areas within the next one-month.
Pakistan Steel would initially produce 2000 (3x10 feet) sheets of 24 to 26 gauges per day, which would be increased to 4000 sheets per day in the next few weeks. It is a point of interest that Pakistan Steel has not produced or marketed this product during the last thirty years.
The extraordinary step has been taken to thwart the price hike by the private sector because they monopoly in this product. The sheets are essential for the emergency shelter of the earthquake victims and they could not have been left on the mercy of cruel profiteers.
The management has indigenously designed some machines to produce these sheets. This would considerably improve the situation in rehabilitation and construction phase, good for the hapless victims.
Pakistan Steel has also developed the capacity to construct caravan bodies in its Lahore workshop. It would also be able to play a vital role in the reconstruction phase by providing galvanised corrugated sheets of size 950mm-x 0.55 mm/ 0.6-mm x2440mm/3000mm.
In addition cold-formed box sections (x-section: 100mm x 60mm x 5mm), channels (3 x-sections ie 140mm x 80mm x 5mm; 160mm x 80mm x 5mm and 200mm x 80mm x 6mm) and angle iron (2 x-section ie 65mmx 65mm and 75mm x 75mm) would also be provided by Pakistan Steel for low-cost housing and these could be used as beams and columns.
Pakistan Steel has already given the technical specifications of these construction materials to Lieutenant General Muhammad Zubair, Engineering chief, appointed by the government of Pakistan as the incharge of the reconstruction work in the earthquake-hit areas.
Pakistan Steel is the only industrial organisation in the country that can readily provide these construction materials based on its capability to produce 100,000 tonnes of galvanised coil per year.