As promised, federal government gives Karachi 50 new fire engines

• 50 fire engines, two bowsers given to Karachi by federal government
  
• The new fire tenders are capable of storing up to 7,000 litres of water each
• At present, the city’s fire brigade has merely 14 functional fire tenders out of 44, while 11 fire stations out of total 25 are functional to respond to any untoward situation in the city

KARACHI: The federal government has given 50 new fire tenders and two bowsers to Karachi as promised last year. They reached the Karachi port Sunday.

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar and Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Aminul Haq attended the ceremony. They received the fire tenders on behalf of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

The bowsers can store 18,000 litres of water and the fire tenders 7,000 litres of water each. The tenders have power water nozzles for conducting operations at high-rise buildings.

They will be help reduce material and human losses in the city because of frequent fire incidents.

The sorry state of affairs in Karachi’s fire department

Currently, the city’s fire brigade has merely 14 functional fire tenders out of 44, while 11 fire stations out of total 25 are functional to respond to any untoward situation.

New Year gift from PM Imran Khan

The Sindh governor said the new fire tenders and bowsers were a New Year gift from Prime Minister Imran Khan for Karachiites.

He said the procurement had enabled the federal government to fulfill another of its commitment with the people.

The federal government has spent a sum of Rs1.4 billion to purchase the fire tenders and bowsers.

Ismail said it was unprecedented that such a large number of fire tenders had been purchased in a single bid.

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Nine representative associations of the industrial estates in Karachi will get two of these fire tenders under the new public-private partnership arrangement.

Saylani, Chippa and local NGOs will also be given fire engines.

For the initial three years, the federal government will look after the maintenance of these fire tenders through a supplier. Recipient agencies will then be responsible for it.