KARACHI, Sept 18: Despite its two workshops equipped with the required equipment and staff, the city government continues to outsource the maintenance of its fire tenders, which cost the local authorities about Rs10 million a year.

Sources in the fire department said that since the workshops had not been operational for the last more than a year, some 30 workers associated with them rarely attended their duty and stayed away from their respective workplaces for weeks.

Though the authorities concerned are unable to identify the reasons behind this policy, which led to the outsourcing of the maintenance of fire tenders to a private company, sources said the deal added an extra burden to the city government’s finances.“The fire department has two separate workshops, each in the Central Fire Station and the Sohrab Goth Fire Station,” said a source privy to the details of the project. “There are some 30 employees, who are associated with the two workshops. A Grade-17 officer is posted to supervise the workshops’ functions and there are employees under different pay-scale ranging from Grade 6 to 12.”

But the workshops at the two fire stations were abandoned due to the recent policy of the government, he said, adding that the workers of the two facilities were competent enough to undertake any technical job. As there was no official assignment, most of them were doing private jobs, said the source.

Records at the fire department suggests frequent visits of a private company’s officials to the city’s different fire stations and also dispatch of fire tenders to its workshop for routine maintenance work, including painting, fabrication and vehicles’ fitness.

“In a year, some 15 fire tenders of different stations have been repaired by the hired private company,” said the source. “The budget for the maintenance of these (15) vehicles is estimated at Rs10 million. The workshop operated by the fire department has all the required capability and resources to undertake the job assigned to the private company.”

The sources claimed that the company hired for maintenance work of the fire tenders had mostly repaired those vehicles which were in operation, in line with the terms of its deal with the local authorities. However, in the maintenance work of the vehicles, tyre replacements of the fire tenders were not included, as they were considered one of the most expensive components of the vehicles.

“In the maintenance work, the company is also bound to fix the problems related to water discharge and the whole kit used in firefighting,” said the source. “The number of fire tenders is not up to the required level but still the department manages to operate with the available resources keeping them maintained,” the said.

Meanwhile, the sources said some four fire tenders, which were acquired more than three months ago considering the rising number of fire incidents in the city, were still parked at two different fire stations as the authorities concerned had not yet decided to make them operational.

“Out of the four vehicles, three are parked at the Central Fire Station and one at the Sohrab Goth fire station,” said the source. “They were added to the existing fleet with the hope that the vehicles would help reduce reaction time of firefighters and increase the department’s resources.”

But without any apparent reasons, he added, the vehicles were parked at the two fire stations till further directives from the relevant authorities.

“The department currently has some 32 fire tenders for the city’s 21 fires stations. An addition of four new vehicles may release the pressure to some extent,” added the source.