KARACHI, Feb 2: Work on a ten-bed hospital and community centre in Hawkesbay truck stand will begin within the next few months, while a meeting of oil tankers’ representatives will soon be convened by the governor of Sindh to discuss their problems, Provincial Transport Minister Adil Siddiqi said on Sunday.

He was speaking at the foundation-stone-laying ceremony of a Rs41 million project of road and sewerage drain at the Hawkesbay truck stand and Shirin Jinnah Colony areas on Sunday.

Mr Siddiqi said he would visit the areas once a month along with the City Nazim so as to find solution to the problems at an accelerated pace.

He said transporters and oil tanker owners should also realize the fact that strikes offered no solution to problems.

He pointed out that supply of oil was essential for the country and its transportation on time cannot be ignored. He stressed that it was imperative for oil tanker owners to follow rules and laws.

He said that in order to solve the problems of oil tankers, a meeting of heads of oil companies would be convened which would also be attended by the City Nazim.

Sindh Chief Secretary K.B. Rind said Karachi had gone through an agonising period and now all the people would have to play a collective role for the development of the city.

“We will go to each corner of the city with the message of development and unity,” Mr Rind said, adding that he would again visit the area after three months with new programmes.

The government, he said, was trying to bring improvement to law and order throughout the province. There would be peace and tranquillity in Karachi, which would lead to development as our future generations need opportunities of health and education, he remarked.

He said that the problems of transporters and oil tankers would be taken up at the federal level.

City Nazim Naimatullah Khan said that solution to problems faced by people of Karachi would not suffer any further delay. The Sindh and the city governments are making joint efforts to solve these problems, he added.

He described the transporters as the backbone of Pakistan’s economic activities as they transported freight and other goods to every corner of the country and “it is our responsibility to resolve their problems.”

He announced that the money recovered from the truck stand would be spent on its development. He said the transporters should not restrict their problems to the truck stand alone: they should look at the entire city.

He expressed the hope that the new government would make resources available which would help solve the problems expeditiously.

He appealed to the transporters to take steps for beautification of the Mauripur Road and make a pledge to strive for progress and stability of the city, the province and the country.

The Nazim maintained that the construction of terminals for oil tankers was not the responsibility of the city government alone but was also the duty of oil companies who earned money in Karachi and, therefore, should spend part of the amount on the welfare of the city and cooperate with the city government for solving the terminals-related problems.

DCO Karachi Shafiqur Rehman Paracha said that a major project had been initiated and other problems would also be resolved one by one.

He said that the truck stand would be beautified under the Khushhal Pakistan Programme and people would see the present truck stand as a totally changed place in the next few months. He said encroachments in the area would be removed soon, whereas construction of roads in Shirin Jinnah Colony would give it a new look.—APP