Daily Times

KARACHI: The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) on Thursday awarded contracts for six water supply hydrants in Karachi’s six districts.

The supply of water from these hydrants will start from November 1, 2017 for a period of two years. Later, the contract could be extended to another one year, depending on the performance of the contractor. It is estimated that annual revenue to Rs 1.85 billion will be generated through these contracts.

The KWSB, following directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, has adopted the process of floating tenders for setting up new hydrants and managing existing ones. Earlier, KWSB used to set up these hydrants on its own. The SC, in its order, had directed the KWSB to curtail the number of illegal hydrants. More than 200 hydrants were running illegally. The income from these hydrants was under the control of powerful political elements. There are still around 30 hydrants that are being run illegally in parts of the city.

During the past four months, Rs 250 million has been generated after installation of digital water meters at these sites. This tender process was delayed by around 10 months due to unknown reasons, officials said. KWSB has failed to provide 30 years’ detail of its income, expenditure and other matters to the Water Commission and a task force set up by the Sindh government. Former KWSB MD Misbahuddin Fareed and current MD Hashim Raza Zaidi have been accused of being involved in malpractices.

The National Accountability Bureau has also been conducting an inquiry against Agha Siraj Durrani, Muzaffar Tappi, Sharjeel Memon and Jam Khan Shoro and seven officials of KWSB.

On Thursday, around 74 contractors participated in the bidding for installing the new hydrants. Around 56 contractors were earlier disqualified on different grounds.

Work orders will be issued to the wining contractors within a couple of days. Monitoring of contractors in their respective water services will be the responsibility of the KWSB.

“However, two of the contractors awarded the contracts are already running these hydrants before the tender process,” KWSB officials said. The pre-conditions for participating in the bidding process were: having commercially licensed vehicles with valid registration, registration with the Federal Board of Revenue, sales tax, income and number, service tax number, valid registration with Excise and Taxation Department Karachi and a no objection certificate from the KWSB about any outstanding dues. The official timings of the hydrant will be 18 hours, which will be scheduled with negotiation with district administration and traffic police in the larger interest of the public.

The water supply on daily basic is estimated to around 1.8 million gallons to the designated areas in city by KWSB. Fifty five percent water supplies will be on commercial basic. The remaining water supply will be available to domestic consumers depending on their schedule.

Tankers of different hydrants will be painted in different colours. They will not be allowed to supply water in areas other than assigned to them.

The contractors will be responsible for all liabilities due to accidents or damage caused to properties including loss of life of any third party or employees of KWSB or contractor’s employee during the term of contract agreement. The entire cost and expenses of getting electric connections for the hydrants and subsequent monthly bills will be borne by the contractor. In case, the contractor makes use of power supply from KWSB, a fee of Rs 26.68 per 1,000 gallons will be charged.

Published in Daily Times, October 27^th 2017.