KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah approved on Tuesday Rs17.7 billion to buy eight snorkels, fire tenders, refuse trucks, tractors and trolleys for Sindh’s local bodies.

He took this decision while presiding over a meeting here at CM House. The meeting was attended by Local Government Minister Nasir Husain Shah and relevant officials.

The local government department presented a proposal to purchase eight snorkels for extinguishing fires in high-rise buildings.

The chief minister was told that eight snorkels, each one 35 metres long, would be purchased for the divisional headquarters — three for Karachi, one each for the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Nawabshah, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas and Larkana divisions.

The local government minister told the chief minister that tenders for the purchase of snorkels had been floated. He added that the snorkels were needed for all divisional headquarters. At this the chief minister said that Rs1.5bn would be made available in the next financial year.

The LG minister further informed the meeting that the municipal committees had to transport garbage collected in their respective areas to their landfill sites, therefore, 102 tractors and trolleys were required and the purchase would cost Rs4.1bn.

The chief minister, in principle, approved the proposal and directed the finance department to make the amount available at the start of the next financial year.

The local government department presented another scheme for the purchase of 89 fire tenders for different municipal committees.

The local government minister said that most of the municipal committees were in need of fire tenders for firefighting.

Murad Ali Shah approved Rs2.8bn for purchase of 89 fire tenders to be provided to the municipal committees all over Sindh.

The chief minister approved another proposal of the local government department under which 115 refuse trucks would be purchased for Rs9.3bn in the next financial year.

Murad Ali Shah directed the LG minister to activate the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and the DMCs to clean their major nullahs. “The monsoon season is approaching, therefore, desilting of major nullahs should be started shortly,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2021