KARACHI: As the three-day deadline given to the city administration to clean all neighbourhoods passed without any visible improvement on ground, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Wednesday asked the local government ministry to outsource the job of garbage lifting to some international firm in at least three district municipal corporations (DMCs) of Karachi.

While presiding over a meeting on garbage lifting issues at CM House, the chief minister asked the relevant authorities to turn Karachi clean in coming weeks by expediting the process to award contracts.

Earlier, Sindh Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro informed the meeting that with the government approval, he had invited international tenders for sweeping and garbage lifting in Korangi, East and South DMCs.

“The Solid Waste Management Board has issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) for two DMCs, South and East, to a Chinese firm and soon we will sign an agreement with them,” he said. On this, the chief minister said: “I want you [local government ministry] to expedite the process and sign agreement with the company within three weeks but ensure that work begin within three months after the award of contract.”

Mr Shah said the people of the city had suffered a lot. They faced terrorists, extortionists and hitmen. “I am proud to say that our government has restored peace to this megacity with the help of police, the Rangers and other law enforcement agencies,” he said.He asked the minister to ensure that people get better sanitary facilities in the city at the earliest.

Mr Shoro said 322,357 tonnes of garbage were generated on a daily basis in Karachi East alone. “Under the new outsource arrangement right from front end collection (house to house to dustbin/ katchra kundi), sweeping of roads and streets and then lifting the garbage from Garbage Transfer Station (GTC) to landfill site would be done by the company,” he said.

He said the contract for this job would be awarded for a period of seven years.

About expenditure of the project, the minister said it would cost to $9.65 million per year, and the company would continue to work for seven years if the Karachi East DMC was satisfied with its performance.

On DMC South, Mr Shoro said it generated 491,590 tonnes of municipal solid waste on a daily basis. The LoI had been issued to the same company for $14.254 million a year. It would also be a seven-year contract, he added.

He said that the company would provide baskets to the houses for garbage and then there would be covered garbage dumps from where it would be collected. “For the first time, mechanical garbage collection and lifting will be made by a private company,” he said, adding that this would give an end to corruption in the sector.

Officials said similar action was being taken for garbage lifting in Korangi district.Mr Shah was earlier scheduled to visit different parts of the city and take action against the authorities concerned as per his previous warning to the top bureaucrats. But officials told the waiting reporters that the visit was cancelled.

Meanwhile, a delegation of leading industrialists called on the chief minister to share with him the problems their industries faced in receiving adequate water.

The chief minister, according to a spokesman, formed a committee to review how certain controlled connections of subsoil water could be given to them while ensuring that they were at least 200ft away from the KWSB mains.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2016