Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday launched the long-awaited Rescue 1122 service, a project in collaboration with the World Bank, to respond to emergencies.
Speaking at its launch ceremony, he announced that a fleet of 230 ambulances would be made available for the service and 50 vehicles would start running immediately.
“We will add 40 ambulances each month and the entire project is expected to be completed by October 2022,” the CM said. “These will be used by the people of Karachi and other districts. The requirement of vehicles is much more than this and we look forward to expanding the rescue service.”
He revealed that the scheme would have three components ie ambulances, fire brigades and police cars.
Recalling his conversation with Administrator Karachi Murtaza Wahab, he added that the latter informed him that fire brigades would be added to the Rescue 1122 service in a month’s time.
Later on, police department will be affiliated to it as well and the provincial government will work to fully operationalise the initiative before the end of its term.
He also highlighted that the project was completed in cooperation with the World Bank.
Shah also notified that rescue services would be available at every 50 kilometers in the city and cover all major roads.
“Last three years were difficult for the scheme due to resource constraints but World Bank came to our aid,” he appreciated. He said that the global lender was also assisting the province in the Sindh Resilience Project.
Speaking about trauma centres, Shah announced that Sindh would establish 38 facilities all over the province.
He revealed that the locations of some of the centres were being debated while the government was moving forward with the viable ones.
“The Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Trauma Centre in Karachi is a state-of-the-art facility which caters to the people of Balochistan as well,” he said.