50 fire engines, two bowsers given to Karachi by federal government

KARACHI: As many as 50 state-of-the-art fire tenders procured by the federal government have arrived at the Karachi Port to enhance the firefighting capability of the city.

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, along with Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar and Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Aminul Haq, attended a ceremony on Sunday at the port to receive the fire tenders on behalf of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). Reports said two bowsers, having the capacity to store 18,000 litres of water, are also the part of new fleet, purchased by the federal government to enhance the firefighting capability of Karachi.

The new fire tenders are capable of storing up to 7,000 litres of water each and equipped with power water nozzles for conducting operations at high-rise buildings. The new fire tenders will be helpful in reducing material and human losses in the city due to frequent fire incidents. At present, the city’s fire brigade has merely 14 functional fire tenders out of 44, while 11 fire stations out of total 25 are functional to respond to any untoward situation in the city.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh governor said as many as 50 state-of-the-art fire tenders and two bowsers were the New Year gift from Prime Minister Imran Khan for Karachiites. He said the procurement had enabled the federal government to fulfill another of its commitment with the people. He said the federal government had spent a sum of Rs1.4 billion to purchase the fire tenders and bowsers.

Imran Ismail said it was unprecedented that such a large number of fire tenders had been purchased in a single bid. He said each of the nine representative associations of the industrial estates in Karachi would get two of these fire tenders under the public-private partnership arrangement. Saylani and Chippa, local NGOs, would also be given fire engines. He said for the initial three years, the federal government would look after the maintenance of these fire tenders through a supplier. He said afterwards the recipient agencies would be responsible to look after and provide water to operate these fire tenders.

The governor said the federally owned Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Ltd had played a pivotal role in procuring these fire tenders. He also clarified that the initiative to procure the fire tenders for Karachi, had been launched in the PTI’s current tenure, while the rival political party had done nothing in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Federal IT Minister Aminul Haq said Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and former Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar had collectively made the efforts to procure these fire engines for Karachi. The Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said a modern mass transit system would become functional on the Green Line section of Bus Rapid Transit System in Karachi by July this year. He said the buses for the Green Line Corridor would arrive by June of this year. He said initially the Green Line service would be launched from Surjani Town to Nuamaish Intersection.Asad Umar said the new railway link would also be constructed from the Karachi Port to Pipri for the movement of freight to resolve the issue of the movement of heavy vehicular traffic on roads of the city. He said the services of a consultant had been hired for the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and building the freight rail corridor in the city. He said the Water and Power Development Authority had started work on behalf of the federal government to further carry out the work to complete the K-IV bulk water supply system for Karachi