The Chinese firm hired to undertake front-end sweeping to Garbage Transfer Station (GTS) has assured Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah that they would take up their job in two districts of Karachi in the last week of January, 2017.

This assurance came when Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah held a special meeting with Chairman Fan Manguao of Changyi Kangjie Sanitation Group in Beijing, said a statement issued here on Friday.

The meeting was attended by local government minister Jam Khan Shoro, industries minister Manzoor Wassan, transport minister Syed Nasir Shah, ACS (Development) Waseem, chairperson SBOI Naheed Memon and others. "I want to go back to Karachi with solid assurance from your side and this would give consolation to the people of Karachi who are tired with sweeping and garbage lifting related issues," said CM.

The company chairman Fan Manguo said that he had sent shipment of necessary mechanical sweeping machinery to sweep and wash streets, main roads and collect dustbins from home to home (front-end) and take it to GTS. The machinery would reach Karachi on January 6 and within next 10 days of its arrival it would be cleared from the port, he said and added in that way his company would be able to start work most probably by the end of January or in the first week of February.

The company told the CM Sindh that they have been assigned the cleaning and sweeping work of two districts, South and East. We would distribute dustbins home to home and then our lifting vehicles would collect them from the areas, he said and also assured the chief minister that not only they would keep cleaning work daily but would clear the backlog.

Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro asked the company to ensure covered garbage lifting work to avoid spread of smell and germs in the environment. The Chinese side assured him that they would use plastic covers and compress the garbage before downloading at the GTS.

The CM Sindh offered the company to come over and install a plant to generate electricity from garbage. On this the company said that they were ready if they were also given the task of lifting garbage from GTS to landfill site. The CM Sindh asked them to start sweeping work first and side by side and continue making efforts for expanding the task upto power generation. "I would personally facilitate you," remarked Chief Minister.

-APP