ISLAMABAD  -  The Chinese government has agreed to provide 21 fire and rescue vehicles to Pakistan that would be utilized by the fire Directorate of Emergency and Disaster Management of the Capital Development Authority.

A confirmation letter has been received in the Economic Affairs Division against the request made by the Pakistani side under which 19 fire trucks, 1 multi-functional rescue vehicle and 1 multi-functional rescue excavator and supporting services would be given to Pakistan. The vehicles include 4 aerial platform fire trucks, 5 water tank fire trucks, 6 water tower fire trucks and 4 equipment fire trucks. The total cost required for the Chinese side to complete the above-mentioned work is 72.31 million RMB, which will be paid under the grant stipulated in the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement signed by the Governments of China and Pakistan on April 28, 2019.

The Chinese side will dispatch these vehicles by sea to Karachi port on its own expenses and also provide a one-year defect free quality guarantee, send 3 technical personnel and an interpreter to Pakistan for a 15-day technical service, providing guidance and training on the use and maintenance of materials. Meanwhile, the letter conveyed that the Pakistani side will be responsible for the use, management, and maintenance of these vehicles while tax exemptions, customs clearance, pick-up, domestic transportation, warehousing, distribution and other matters after the arrival of the vehicles would be sole responsibility of the Pakistani government. However, these vehicles will have Chinese Foreign Aid logos in conspicuous positions to show that the same are given by the Chinese government.

When contacted, it was informed that now the Pakistani government would send a confirmation letter after which the aforementioned vehicles would be dispatched to Pakistan expectedly in the first quarter of 2025. These vehicles would be given to the Directorate of Emergency and Disaster Management which currently has 25 fire tenders and four snorkels. The snorkels, however, have only a 68-metre high ladder, which means they cannot reach high-rise buildings in case of emergency. The last induction in the capital city’s fire brigade was in 2006 after a massive fire eruption incident in Shaheed-e-Millat Secretariat building on main Jinnah Avenue. Since then the subject remained neglected and a couple of attempts to bring modernization and capacity building in the directorate could not succeed besides tall claims of the successive managements.

Meanwhile, the civic agency also failed to start work on four sub-fire stations projects started in 2008 due to budget constraints. The fire stations were to be set up in G-11, 1-9, 1-14 and Model Town Humak for which CDA’s planning wing had already allocated the sites. It is a bitter reality that CDA can’t respond to any emergency timely in rural areas such as Tarnol, Tramri, Rawat, Khanapul and other parts of Zone IV and III until the construction of such substations are built.