KARACHI, June 28: The city government on Wednesday said that it had decided to establish a modern fire service organization and a well-equipped search and rescue team to cope with any untoward situation in an efficient manner.

According to details, the city government has decided to set up a fire service organization of international standards at a cost of more than Rs57.7 million, besides raising an international standard search and rescue team at a cost of Rs350 million. Furthermore, Rs8.8 million would be spent on the procurement of small vehicles for fire brigade.

On the directives of City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal new fire tenders are being purchased at a cost of Rs16.3 million, while three new fire stations would be set up at a cost of Rs30 million. Two new snorkels would also be purchased.

A new department of disaster management is also being established and in this regard 22 small vehicles would be given to the fire brigade. New fire stations would be set up at vacant areas under various flyovers. In the first phase, a new fire station would be set up under the Gulshan Flyover near NIPA Chowrangi.

The city government has also decided to purchase disaster management equipment worth Rs650 million, which would be delivered to the city government within a month.

Presently, 20 fire stations are working in Karachi and the fire brigade had got approval for the required staff for its 12 stations. Now, it has been approved to fill 376 new vacancies in the remaining 8 fire stations.

The city government has also purchased new lifeboats to save beachgoers from mishaps at the city beaches.

Deal cancelled: Meanwhile, the city government has cancelled contract with Hilton Trans Limited, as the firm had failed to run wide-body buses in the required number.

According to a city government press release, the transport department of the CDGK had inked a contract with the Hilton Trans Limited on March 22, 2004 for running new buses on two UTS routes, but later it received complaints about the performance of the company, its failure to bring required number of the buses on roads and payment of the dues to financial institutions.

The city government sent several notices to the company and finally cancelled the deal with it. It also blacklisted two of the company's directors Mohammad Arshad Lateef and Mohammad Saleem Rafi for UTS/ transport sector operations.—PPI