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Govt abandons OKA car project

TAHIR DHINDSA

ISLAMABAD: OKA, the 750 CC low price car, would not roll down assembly lines in Pakistan as the government has decided to abandon the project, top official sources told Business Recorder.

A committee headed by Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood was constituted by Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf to examine the project and give its recommendations.

The decision to abandon the project has been taken in the light of the committee's report, which suggested that the car was not viable in Pakistan from the marketing point of view.

After the ouster of Nawaz government, the ministry sent a summary of the project to the chief executive for renewal of permission. The government of Tataristan had suspended all cooperation on the project after October 12 till further understanding could be reached with the military government.

According to the plan, the car, which was to start with 75 percent CKD kit on January 1, 2000, would have reached 75 percent deletion in two years' time.

The car was to be manufactured at Sindh Engineering Ltd, Karachi, with the technical cooperation of Tataristan and would cost about Rs 100,000 in the local market. The two-door, two-cylinder, four-stroke coupe had been test-driven in the local conditions. With the help of the local engineering industry it was being converted from left-hand drive to right-hand drive.

According to the plan, 100 cars would have been manufactured initially, to be followed by 600 in the first year. Kmaz Company of Russia, having 50 percent equity with the Government of Pakistan (GoP), after the October 12, 1999, event asked the Ministry of Industry to get a fresh permission from the highest authorities before the operation is resumed.

In the meantime, many other companies have jumped into the field. Sources said that the decision to abandon the OKA car project was taken at the behest of certain business groups, who too launched their products in the Pakistani market.