KARACHI, Nov 29: The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has asked the Chinese firm, Shanghai Shengong Environmental Protection Company Ltd., for a precise date for the launching of its domestic waste-lifting operation in the city. The Chinese company has also been asked to respond to the civic agency latest by Dec 4, it has been reliably learnt.

According to sources, a letter dated Nov 28 sent to the firm’s Karachi office and the head office in China, reminds its top executives that no concrete work on the ground has yet started despite a lapse of more than 10 months since the firm set a tentative date for the launching of the operation.

On its part, the Chinese firm has reportedly maintained that it will respond to the CDGK communiqué within a week and intends to launch its operation “soon”.

The sources said that the city government seemed to be losing patience as the Chinese firm had so far failed to start work as mentioned in the contract. The firm has undertaken to collect domestic waste and dispose it of in the city’s landfill sites for $20 per ton in a 20-year contract.

Responding to Dawn’s queries, CDGK’s EDO municipal services Masood Alam said on Saturday that it was a matter of concern that the Chinese firm had not carried out even the infrastructure development spelled out in the agreement despite a lapse of 10 months. Elaborating, he said that the firm was supposed to develop garbage transfer stations and evolve a mechanism for its door-to-door garbage collection activity, besides putting a road-sweeping system in place and carrying out some development work at the landfill sites.

He said that all the works were supposed to be carried out in a scientific manner so that citizens could feel a remarkable improvement in the environment and were convinced that the huge amount of money being paid to the firm was not going down the drain.

The EDO said that domestic waste was still being managed by the CDGK though the Chinese firm had been engaged to take over the system and bring about a visible improvement in the city’s environment.

He said that the firm was also yet to come out with any evidence of having brought in its committed investment amounting to around $75 million. Moreover, he added, it had not brought in the machinery it was supposed to import for solid-waste management.

Mr Alam said the letter sent to the firm was aimed at ascertaining a firm date on which it was going to launch its operation and also to seek an explanation about its failure to start the ground work as yet.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai-based firm’s chief, Qian Yulin, responding to Dawn’s queries, said that his firm intended to import 295 vehicles valued approximately at $75 million from China and was expecting the CDGK to get the customs and other duties on their import exempted, arguing that the machineries were not commercial vehicles and were being imported specifically for this project.

He said that the CDGK had not yet opened an L/C for the import of the machineries, required to start the work. He, however, stated that the firm would respond to the CDGK communication promptly.

Well-placed sources said that things between the CDGK and the Chinese firm were not going on smoothly owing to certain developments occurring in the past few months. Some time back, the CDGK had entered an agreement with the owners of a cement plant located on Super Highway.

The deal related to the sale of the solid waste stocks already sold to the Chinese firm by the CDGK. Similarly, with the US dollar gaining considerably against the Pakistani rupee over the period, the CDGK was asked to lower the agreed upon solid waste disposal rate from $20 per ton to around $15 per ton, though with some proposed conditions. However, the two parties could not agree on a new rate, the sources said.