Mayor Karachi Barrister Murtaza Wahab on Monday directed the officials concerned that work should also be accelerated to bring streetlights to the solar system and take whatever approval is required from him. He said this by chairing a high-level meeting with the officers of the engineering department in his office. Earlier, as an administrator, he had started work to bring streetlights to the solar system in Karachi, but then this work was stopped, the Mayor of Karachi said.
The engineering department should start the work of solar streetlights from Shahrah-e-Faisal and gradually extend it to other important roads and streets of Karachi, he said. Murtaza said that non-functioning of street lights except load shedding hours on the city’s major corridors like Shahrah-e-Faisal, Rashid Minhas Road, Shahrah-e-Pakistan, Mai Kolachi Road, M.T.Khan Road and other main roads and highways cannot be tolerated any further.
He said that the engineering department must ensure that the street lights installed on all these roads are kept lit within a week and the concerned engineers should visit the areas personally and take immediate steps where required, but provide convenience to the citizens at any cost.
On this occasion, Deputy Mayor Karachi Salman Abdullah Murad, Municipal Commissioner Syed Afzal Zaidi, Director General Engineering Azhar Hussain Shah, S.E Electrical & Mechanical Abbas Ali Shah, S.E I & QC Anees Ahmed Khan, Chief Engineers of various zones and districts, XENs, Executive Engineers and other officers were also present. Mayor Karachi took strict notice of the shutdown of streetlights on various main roads and streets of the city during the meeting and directed the Director General Engineering to fix the vigilance system immediately.
He said the engineers and other officers should go and inspect themselves everywhere and restore the street lights immediately wherever the system is not working. A week later on September 04, he himself will visit the city to see that the orders given have been complied with and how far has it been implemented, he said.
He said that KMC does not have to pay the bill for streetlights as all payments are made by the Sindh government. However, switching off the streetlights on the streets of Karachi is not acceptable. He said that there has been a discussion with the officials of K-Electric and they will solve all the issues with K-Electric.
