Pakistan Plans 400 Acre Garments City at Port Qasim Karachi with 32 Industrial Plots

Pakistan plans to establish a 400 acre Garments City at Port Qasim in Karachi as part of a broader push to expand textile exports, attract private investment and create jobs, according to a statement issued after Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry chaired a meeting on the proposed export oriented industrial cluster on 17 August 2026. The project is structured as a public private partnership, with the Port Qasim Authority providing infrastructure and utilities while private investors build and operate the manufacturing facilities themselves.

What the First Phase Actually Includes

The first phase of development will cover 250 acres of the total 400 acre site, with 35 percent of that area allocated for internal roads, utilities and green space rather than industrial plots directly. The proposed commercial structure comprises 32 industrial plots of five acres each, though authorities are considering reducing individual plot sizes to two or three acres to accommodate a larger number of investors and manufacturing units within the same footprint. Officials project the first phase will create 138,125 jobs and generate approximately 2.2 billion dollars in annual exports, with a stated goal of raising the average export value of Pakistani garments to around 8 dollars per piece.

The Utilities Commitment Behind the Numbers

Each individual industrial unit within the Garments City is expected to have access to up to 400,000 gallons of water per day, two megawatts of on grid electricity, and 23,100 pounds of industrial gas per day at 8 pounds per square inch of pressure, sufficient to support steam requirements of up to 10 tonnes. Across the full project once built out, planned utility capacity includes 13 million gallons of water per day, 64 megawatts of electricity, and 750,000 pounds of industrial gas per day, figures that give a genuine sense of the scale of infrastructure investment the Port Qasim Authority is committing to as its side of the public private partnership.

A One Window System for Exporters

The proposed Garments City will also include a one window system intended to streamline export processing for tenants, featuring dedicated customs desks and specialised transport corridors designed to reduce logistical delays between manufacturing and shipment. This kind of centralised export facilitation is a common feature of dedicated industrial zones globally, and its inclusion here signals the government's intent to position the site specifically for export oriented apparel manufacturers rather than as general purpose industrial land.

The First Confirmed Tenant

Pakistani textile and denim manufacturer Artistic Milliners has committed to investing more than 18 million dollars in a manufacturing facility at the site, incorporating vertical integration and green technologies. Artistic Milliners traces its roots back to 1949, when it began as a small retail store in Karachi before growing into one of the world's leading denim fabric and garment manufacturers, today operating with an annual production capacity in the tens of millions of pounds of yarn and meters of fabric, alongside a diversified renewable energy portfolio that includes wind power generation. Its early commitment to the Garments City gives the project a concrete anchor tenant with genuine manufacturing scale, rather than resting solely on projected job and export figures.

Part of a Broader Port Qasim Industrial Push

This announcement sits alongside another significant Port Qasim industrial development covered separately in milkiyat.com's report on the 150 acre Automotive Processing Zone, also structured around Port Qasim Authority provided infrastructure and private manufacturing investment. Port Qasim already hosts roughly 80 percent of Pakistan's automotive industry alongside its existing role handling close to 90 percent of the country's total external trade together with Karachi Port, making this corridor Pakistan's most concentrated zone of port adjacent industrial development, with the Garments City now positioned to add a dedicated apparel manufacturing cluster to that existing base.

What This Means for Commercial and Industrial Real Estate

A confirmed 400 acre industrial development, once its first phase moves from planning into actual plot allocation and construction, would represent a meaningful addition to Karachi's industrial and commercial land market specifically around the Port Qasim corridor. The utility infrastructure commitments alone, water, electricity and industrial gas capacity built out at this scale, tend to support land values not just within the zone itself but along the surrounding corridor, since serviced industrial land with guaranteed utility access is considerably more valuable than undeveloped land requiring a tenant to arrange its own infrastructure. Investors and businesses evaluating industrial or commercial land near Port Qasim should treat this announcement as a genuine, utility backed development commitment given the confirmed anchor tenant and detailed infrastructure figures already disclosed, while still confirming specific plot allocation timelines, pricing and eligibility criteria directly with the Port Qasim Authority before making any investment decision, since a ministerial meeting announcement is an earlier stage commitment than a finalised, tendered industrial park.

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Sources

1. Port Qasim Authority, official introduction to the port and its jurisdiction: https://www.pqa.gov.pk/en/about-us/introduction
2. Port Qasim Authority, official industrial zone and industrial complex information: https://www.pqa.gov.pk/en/industrial-zone/industrial-complex
3. The LYCRA Company, sourcing network profile of Artistic Milliners, background on the company's production capacity and history: https://one.lycra.com/en/sourcing-network/artistic-milliners-pvt-ltd
4. Artistic Milliners, official LinkedIn company profile: https://pk.linkedin.com/company/artisticmilliners1949