ISLAMABAD, May 16: Poor governance system in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has put the safety of four firefighting snorkels imported from Sweden at stake.
Official sources told Dawn that five double-cabin (pilot or commando) vehicles meant for handling the smooth movement of the Rs420 million each snorkels had been under the personal use of CDA officers for the last over one year.
“The snorkels can’t move to meet any fire incident swiftly because the pilot vehicles are being used by the CDA officers,” said a senior official of the civic agency.
The Swedish fire tenders, which allow firemen scale up to a height of 68 metres, were imported specifically after the Shaheed-i-Millat Secretariat fire incident in 2002 when CDA vehicles could not reach the then tallest building of the city.
It is pertinent to mention that CDA Chairman Syed Tahir Shahbaz orders are flouted by his subordinate officials, highlighting the poor governance in the civic agency.
Soon after taking the charge, Mr Shahbaz had claimed that he would introduce a transport and vehicle policy to limit the spending on fuel and maintenance.
The official explained: “In October 2009, a foreign mission vehicle hit one of the snorkels and it could not be repaired for over two years by the manufacturing company as its spare parts were not available in Pakistan.”
An administration department official said chairman Shahbaz was yet to take action in this regard.
Without these vehicles, the fire tenders cannot reach a calamity-hit area in a shortest possible time, he added.
According to CDA search and rescue guideline documents, the double-cabin vehicles were part of emergency operations.
However; strangely, the vehicles were being used by the CDA officers for joy rides.
Meanwhile, another CDA official said the fire and rescue department was short of basic equipment.
“We are not prepared for any large-scale natural or manmade calamity because the authority’s top management is not interested in strengthening the department,” said the official.
He added that a 43-metre fire tender was also out of order for the last two years but the civic agency had not taken any action to repair it due to red tape.
Despite repeated attempts, CDA Chairman Syed Tahir Shahbaz could not be contacted fore comment.