BAHAWALPUR, June 30: The process of taking-over the fire station from the Tehsil Municipal Administration has been initiated under the instructions of the Punjab government.

District emergency officer Dr Malik Asif Channar said this while talking to journalists here.

He said with the completion of fire station’s evaluation work, presently in progress, the emergency centre would administratively takeover and run its affairs.

At all district headquarters in Punjab, he said, the government was also handing over the administrative control of fire stations to the respective district emergency officers.

Regarding the construction of city’s three emergency centers at a cost of Rs50 million, Dr Asif said the construction work, likely to begin next month, was expected to be completed next year. He said that 1122 emergency service could be launched in Bahawalpur by December, 2007.

He said that centres would be provided with 10 ambulances and modern equipment, including wireless and monitoring accessories, for which 300 recruitments would be made on merit.

With the setting up of emergency centres and launching of the emergency service here, the network could be extended to tehsil headquarters in the Bahawalpur district. Later, the network would further be extended to other district headquarters in Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan, he said.