KARACHI, April 3: The city government will employ all resources to make Karachi a polio-free zone by the year 2007 and extend cooperation in this regard at every level. This was announced by City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal while speaking at a ceremony held in Gulshan-i-Iqbal to mark the beginning of a three-day national anti-polio campaign.

The naib nazim of Gulshan Town, Shoaib Akhtar, Dr Midhat (WHO), Dr Asif Aslam (Unicef) and EDO Health Dr Khalid Sheikh were also present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, the city nazim said that during the three-day campaign some 6.072 million children of up to five years of age including 21,5000 in Karachi would be administered polio and vitamin-A drops.

It is the 59th round of anti-polio campaign which is being participated by 694 zonal supervisors (doctors), 3,653 area in charges (doctors, DSVs and TSVs), 16,103 mobile teams, 7,833 fixed centres, 1,190 transit points, 694 vehicles and 3,653 motorcycles.

Mr Kamal said that in the anti-polio national drive-2006 some 1,760 vaccinators from all over Sindh including 316 EPI vaccinators from Karachi were taking part.

This year, he said, there would be eight rounds of NIDs and two have already been held.

The nazim said that the areas in Karachi and rest of the province on which the Unicef was focussing include Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Saddar, Gadap, Keamari, Orangi and Malir besides Thatta, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Khairpur and Larkana.

He pointed out that 18,420 lady health visitors including 2,900 from Karachi were also involved in the campaign. These include 1,426 traineed LHVs from Karachi and 7,635 from the rest of the province.

The nazim urged the people to ensure administration of polio and vitamin-A drops to their children to protect them against this crippling disease.

Meanwhile, City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal said that first phase of Karachi Circular Railway under the Karachi Mass Transit Programme (KMTP) will be completed by 2010 whereas the work on second phase will start soon.

He stated this while talking to a delegation of a German company, Voith Turbos, which manufactures locomotives and train spare parts.

The delegation, which arrived here earlier in the day, comprised Dr Ing Manfred Lerch, Holger Costari and Hansjorg Kopp. Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, DCO Fazlur Rehman, Mohammed Ali and Taha Khan were also present at the meeting which was held in the nazim’s office.

Mr Kamal briefed the delegation about the ongoing projects and details of KMTP.

The city government, he said, planned to bring in 8,000 environment-friendly CNG buses by 2010 to provide maximum possible and better commuting facilities to the people of Karachi.

He acknowledged that German machinery was not only long lasting but of good quality.

The city nazim said that attention would have to be paid to the underground and overhead projects in order bring the city at par with those of developed countries.

It is for this reason that the city government an accelerated pace of work on underpasses and flyovers is being maintained.

He pointed that more emphasis was being laid on public-private partnership while private sector was being brought forward for investment in Karachi and was being provided incentives for the purpose.

He referred to the plans for the construction of six mass transit corridors and said these would not only meet the requirement of this city, but also of Central Asia and thus would attract investments from other countries of the region.

The nazim informed the delegation that foreign investment and investors’ growing involvement in uplift plans had registered a record increase in Pakistan, especially Karachi, due to the special interest being taken by President Pervez Musharraf and the growing economy of Sindh.

The German delegation said that Voith Turbos was the world’s largest company manufacturing spare pars of locomotives and coaches and having presence in many countries.

The company is interested in the rail project under the Karachi Mass Transit Programme (KMTP) and offers transfer of technology for the manufacturing of these items locally.

The delegation also expressed interest in the CNG buses for Karachi, and told the city nazim that the buses manufactured by the company were successfully operating in Iran, Singapore and several other countries.

Mr Kamal observed that transfer of German technology would not only help generate employment opportunities here, but would also result in saving of foreign exchange.—APP