HYDERABAD, May 24: The district government has appointed a full-time project director to step up pace of work on the Hyderabad Development Package (HDP) and ensure it is completed within stipulated period.

This was said by District Naib Nazim Zafar Rajput during his visits to different localities of the City and Qasimabad talukas on Wednesday to inspect progress on the ongoing development works. He said that Sarfraz Ahmed had been appointed as full-time project director and expressed the hope that the step would speed up pace of work.

He directed the Water And Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to prepare a rain contingency plan well before the monsoon season to prevent a repeat of last year’s disaster triggered by heavy rains.

He asked the agency officials to carry out a survey of existing drainage networks especially in low-lying areas and ensure a foolproof drainage system with alternate arrangements was put in place there.

Arrangements should be made for desilting all the open drains and nullahs and making the required machinery functional before an emergency, besides establishing close coordination with other organisations, he said.

Citing people’s complaints about erratic and contaminated water supply, the naib nazim directed the officials concerned to ensure supply of clean water to people.

He said that monitoring of Wasa officials was secretly being conducted by monitoring teams and the district would not spare any official found guilty of negligence.

He said that the district government had launched billions of rupees worth mega projects to solve people’s problems. A complete report on people’s complaints would soon be submitted to the district nazim, he said.

The naib nazim visited Gari Khata, Qazi Qayoom Road, Kohinoor Chowk, Moula Ali Qadamgah, Station Road, Dadan Shah, Risala Road, Nasim Nagar, Sehrish Nagar, Samina Bungalows, Sheedi Goth and their adjoining areas to inspect ongoing development works.

He was accompanied by chairman of works and services committee of the district council Munawar Khan Zai, Aslam Memon, Nazir Baloch, Rashid Khan, Mehboob Abro, Wasa Managing Director Mishraz Siddiqui, HDP Deputy Project Director Kafeel Ahmed and HDP Coordinator Faheem Junejo.

MoU SIGNED: The Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) and the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on establishing linkage between the two organisations for research cooperation.

A spokesman for the university said that the linkage would be the first of its kind between the university and industry in the country.

The agreement, he said, would go a long way in the development of links to carry out joint research in engineering projects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Both the organisations would benefit from each other’s experience and laboratory facilities in the field of mechanical, chemical, electrical, electronics and telecommunication engineering.