The provincial government on Wednesday decided to provide loans to the businessmen affected by the fire at Lahore’s Hafeez Centre through the Punjab Rozgar Scheme.
According to sources, the provincial government is also considering providing shops in government-owned plazas to the traders affected by the blaze.
Fire at Hafeez Centre
Last week, a fire had erupted inside a plaza located at the city’s Gulberg main boulevard area on Sunday morning due to an electrical short circuit, spreading to the fourth floor of the building.
According to details from rescue officials, the fire broke out in a shop on the second floor of the plaza — Hafeez Centre, where laptops, mobile phones and other electronic items are sold — and spread to the fourth floor.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames inside the Hafeez Centre electronic market several hours after the inferno destroyed merchandise worth millions.
Shopkeepers lament losses in billions
Traders of Hafeez Centre estimated almost Rs2.5 billion to Rs3 billion worth of equipment had been lost in the fire. As many as 250 to 300 shops in the plaza had been gutted by the flames.
President of Ajnuman-e-Tajiran Hafeez Centre Malik Kaleem talking to The Newssaid that almost 100 shops suffered around Rs20 to Rs25 million inventory losses each while 150 to 200 suffered a loss of Rs1.5 to Rs3 million loss each.
“There are big and small shopkeepers on each floor where the fire incident occurred. Out of which almost 100 shopkeepers had large businesses and 150 to 200 were operating small businesses with small shops”, he said.
He said that further, details of the loss will be disclosed when each shopkeeper will calculate and submit claims.
