KARACHI: Chief Secretary Sindh Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput said Tuesday that Rescue 1122 Centers would be launched in all the districts of the province and for this 230 ambulances would be procured this year in collaboration with the World Bank.

He said this while presiding over an important meeting on Rescue 1122 which was attended by Commissioner Karachi Muhammad Iqbal Memon, Secretary Admission Saeed Ahmed Mangrejo, Secretary Health Zulfiqar Shah, Secretary Rehabilitation, Director General Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and representatives of World Bank and other relevant officials. Briefing the meeting regarding Rescue 1122, the officials of PDMA said that at present 60 ambulances are providing services under Sindh Integrated Health Services in Karachi and Thatta and 30 more ambulances will be provided in 2 days to launch the services in Hyderabad and Badin.

During the meeting, Rajput said that Rescue 1122 service would be launched in all the districts of the province and for this with the help of World Bank some 230 ambulances would be procured this year. While quoting the recent fire incident in a village of Mehar, he said that Response of rescue teams was slow there and in case of any such incident in future the Rescue 1122 teams will be able to reach the scene within 10 to 15 minutes. He announced that ambulance, firefighting, and other emergency services will be also included in the upcoming rescue service.

He further said that Rescue 1122 Centers would be set up in all the districts with their divisional headquarters in each division. Rajput further said that Rescue 1122 would be able to deal with various calamities and natural disasters including floods, earthquakes and fires. He further said that a state of the art command and control center would be set up in Karachi which will monitor services of Rescue 1122 for 24 hours a day. It was further informed in the meeting that the work of Rescue 1122 headquarters and 6 stations in Karachi is in final stages.