Sindh Information and Labour Minister, Saeed Ghani, has directed the officials concerned to ensure the availability of standby arrangements to tow away the motor vehicles, which would become faulty and stuck due to heavy rains in different choking points in District East of Karachi.
Sindh Information and Labour Minister issued directives to this effect as he chaired a meeting here on Thursday at the office of Deputy Commissioner of District of East to review emergency arrangements being made in the district in view of the forecast of heavy rains in Karachi in the coming days.
The Sindh Information Minister has been assigned the responsibilities of supervising emergency arrangements being made in District East of Karachi during expected heavy rains in the city in the coming few days.
While chairing the meeting, Saeed Ghani said that rainwater was expected to get accumulated in areas of Nursery, NIPA, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Jamshed Road, Janagir Road, and adjacent localities of District East of Karachi in case of heavy rain.
He said that standby arrangements should be made at all such choking points in the district to tow away the vehicles, which would become stuck on roads due to heavy rain.
He said the officials should also make efforts to ensure the availability of motor mechanics to repair the faulty vehicles during downpours.
He also asked the officials concerned to establish a rain emergency centre in DC East House to monitor the rain situation and meet any eventuality in the entire district.
He said that a whatsapp group should also be formed to ensure better coordination among the concerned officials of the district during rain emergency.
The Information Minister also directed the officials concerned to ensure availability of de-watering machinery from Nursery Furniture Market till Sharea Faisal as the troubled spot in the past had witnessed urban flooding during heavy rains.
The officials concerned of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation informed the meeting that there were six major stormwater drains of the KMC in District East of the city.
Saeed Ghani asked the officials concerned to keep an eye on all the choking points of these drains and also to ensure the deployment of machinery required to deal with any eventuality to be caused by urban flooding.
Administrator of District Municipal Corporation, East, Shoaib Ahmed, informed that the DMC East managed 39 small drains in the district as de-silting work had been completed up to 90 per cent to make these drains functional during the current monsoon season. While the work has been in progress to do the remaining de-silting work.
Deputy Commissioner, District East, Asif Jan Siddiqui, briefed the meeting about arrangements so far done to tackle any situation of rain emergency in the district.
Later on, Sindh information Minister visited various areas of District East of Karachi including Nursery, Sharea Faisal, Karsaz, Stadium Road, and other spots to personally inspect emergency measures taken at these places to tackle any situation of urban flooding.