KARACHI, Feb 28: The City District Government Karachi is setting up the first computerised toll-free call center with the name of “Citizen Complain Information Centre” where people would be able to lodge their complaints any time round the clock.

The project costing Rs140 million is the first of its kind any city district government has introduced in any part of the country, claims the CDGK.

The city government, town administrations, KWSB and KBCA would be lined up through the new centre, a spokesman for the CDGK said.

At a briefing chaired by City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal on Tuesday, salient features of the centre and its mechanism were highlighted. The nazim noted that the centre would have a capacity of entertaining 25 calls at a time while it could be extended further.

Initially, 50 call agents would be hired, he said, adding that the strength would be increased gradually up to 2,500.

The 25-strong staff would be available in morning , 20 in evening and five in night shift at the centre. Besides, six call agents would be present to perform their duties in each town.

The city nazim will monitor at night all the complaints lodged with the centre while the heads of the KWSB and KBCA, EDOs and town nazims would have the facility of going through the complaints relating to their respective departments for issuance of directives for addressing the same.

The Citizen Complaint Information Centre will also be linked with the city government’s website where any complainant could see information about the directives issued on his complaints after tracing out the required information through the number allotted to his complaint.

In this regard, senior officers in all town administrations would act as coordinators with the task of setting up offices in their respective towns and maintain a close liaison with the EDO Information Technology for other relevant matters.

In the first phase, the system will integrate the city government with some specified department and in the next phase, all civic agencies will be brought under the umbrella. The nazim said that the new system would not only improve the performance of these departments but also help resolve the problems being faced by general public.

He pointed out that essential equipment for this system had been imported. He also noted that under this system, there would be a record of all complaints lodge by people and also of the response thereof from the departments concerned. He said the system would be implemented fully within the next few months.