KARACHI, Sept 18: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal said on Monday that the city government would shortly provide a pair of mobile suction and jetting machines to each town for cleaning of nullahs and sewerage lines.

He was speaking at the signing ceremony of an agreement reached between the KWSB and Meraj Limited for procuring 18 mobile suction/pressure units and 18 mobile jetting units under Tameer-i-Karachi Programme at a cost of Rs252.88 million. Brig Iftikhar Haider and chief executive officer of the private firm Iftikhar Hussain Quraishi signed the accord on behalf of their respective organizations. KWSB’s Deputy Managing Director (Planning) Shahid Salim, Chief Engineer (TKP) Mashkoorul Hassan, Chief Engineer (Electricity and Mechanical) Gulzar Memom and Project Manage (TKP) Misbahuddin Fareed were also present.

Highlighting the importance of the accord, the nazim said that the mobile suction machines and jetting machines which would be manufactured by May 2007 would be handed over to all towns without any discrimination and irrespective of the party affiliations of the town nazims, as ultimate beneficiaries of such machines would be the common man.

He said that there were hardly five or six jetting and suction machines available for the entire city at present. He said that when all the 18 towns would have a pair of machines at their disposal, the problem of overflowing sewage lines and nullahs would be overcome to a great extent.

“In fact, the city government was spending millions of rupees on the procurement of such modern machines and undertaking various development projects merely to improve the quality of life of the common man,” Mr Kamal added.

At the outset, he asked the manufacturers of jetting and suction machines to hand over the same latest by June so that the citizens may start reaping the fruits of such machines as soon as possible.

Later, the nazim visited the Korangi Industrial Area’s main sewage pumping station to review the pace of rehabilitation and improvement work being carried out by the KWSB at an estimated cost of Rs379.372 million under Tameer-i-Karachi Programme. The project would be completed in nine months.

The nazim was informed that sewerage system dedicated to Korangi industrial area envisaged laying of 48-inch-dia pipes on either side of Korangi’s 8000 Road.

The chairman of Korangi Association of Trade and Industries, Gulzar Feroz, thanked the nazim for taking keen interest in rehabilitating infrastructure of the industrial areas. He said that it was for the first time during the last 40 years that the nazim had initiated infrastructure improvement work in Korangi Industrial Area.