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National scene: $75m project to lay backbone
Wateen Telecom, a subsidiary of the UAE-based Al Warid Telecom, launched earlier this week a $75 million project to lay a fibre-optic backbone across the country.
The first phase of the project would stretch from Karachi to Rahimyar Khan, a distance of about 800km. The cable would be passing through 63 cities.
“Wateen Telecom is setting up a nationwide fibre-optic network in Pakistan spanning the length and breadth of the country,” Farrukh Hayat Khan, regional general manager of Al Warid Telecom, said at the groundbreaking ceremony of the project.
“It would be a state-of-the-art fibre-optic backbone, with a self-healing ring configuration for redundancy and for the first time in Pakistan a hybrid of G652D fibres is being used to meet the exponential growing need of bandwidth in Pakistan.”
He added that in the next phase the company had planned a $200 million project to lay a comprehensive telecom infrastructure across the country.
IT park
The chief minister of Punjab, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, has approved a plan to set up Lahore’s first Information Technology Park. The chief minister gave his approval while presiding over a meeting of the Punjab Information Technology Board in the Chief Minister’s House early this week.
On the occasion, the chief minister said the park would cover an area of 32 kanals on Ferozepur Road and its first phase would be completed within 15 months. He was of the opinion that the project would generate at least 10,000 direct and indirect jobs, and would promote international trade.
He added that the technology park would generate Rs5 billion annually and would accelerate the pace of local and foreign investment.
Chairman of the board said the park would be a milestone in IT sector. He said new call centres and outsourcing centres would be established in the park, which would promote international contacts.
Agreement
Cybernet, one of the largest internet service providers in Pakistan, recently signed an agreement with the Zindagi Trust under which free DSL connections would be provided to the non-governmental organization’s offices throughout the country. The agreement was signed by Shehzad Roy, on behalf of Zindagi Trust, and by Javed Wadood, on behalf of Cybernet.
“With Zindagi Trust aiming to educate more than 100,000 working children across Pakistan, we are consistently looking for strategic alliances with responsible organizations, such as Cybernet, which contribute towards making our ambitious goal a possibility,” remarked Shehzad Roy on the occasion.
Praising Zindagi Trust, Javed Wadood said the non-governmental organizations was helping bring about a positive change in society.
TVs and cameras
Panasonic announced last week that it would soon be launching a large range of Viera plasma digital television sets and Lumix digital cameras in Pakistan.
The TV sets to be launched include three high-definition plasma TV models (TH-65PV500, TH-50PV500 and TH-42PV500), two high-definition LCDTVs (TX-32LX500 and TX-26LX500), two standard resolution wide plasma TVs (TH-42PA50 and TH-37PA50), and two standard resolution LCD TVs (TX-23LX50 and TX-20LA5).
Clean water
Piped water being supplied to Karachi was nothing but a health hazard, said speakers at a seminar held last week in the city. The speakers on the occasion called for proper treatment of water before distribution.
The seminar was organized by the microbiology department of Karachi University, in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission. Speakers said the microbial load in the water supplied to Karachiites was unacceptably high. The water, meant for consumption, contained bacteria too.
A presentation was made by a group of scientists who collected samples of water from Landhi, following the outbreak of gastro-enteritis there. In their presentation, the group pointed out that water supplied to the area was contaminated with human pathogens, including vibrio cholerae, enterobacter and pseudomonas.
A PhD scholar said investigations for the presence of enteric virus and chemical contamination are under way, and the results would be disseminated soon.
Meanwhile, a report formulated by Prof Shahana Urooj Kazmi and Adnan Khan said the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board should set up a state-of-the-art water quality assurance laboratory to ensure a pathogen-free supply of water to Karachiites. — Sci-tech World report
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