For relief work: PDMA to get $15.95m helicopter

CM also decided to establish Thar Development Authority and the Kohistan Development Authority

KARACHI:

The Sindh cabinet has decided to purchase a $15.95 million helicopter from an Italian company to help the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) carry out relief work.

This decision was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at the CM House on Friday.

The procurement committee chairperson, Shazar Shamoon, told the cabinet that the advertisement for the procurement of a helicopter had been placed on the official websites of the PDMA and the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, as well as published in national and international daily newspapers. Eight parties had obtained the bid documents and only one party, AgustaWestland from Italy, had responded to the advertisement.



He said that the bid had been evaluated by a technical committee, headed by the chief pilot of VIP flights. Meanwhile, the procurement committee, after visiting a user of helicopter model AW 139 in Pakistan, held a meeting with the AgustaWestland technical team.

CM Shah, with the approval of the cabinet, told the committee to award the contract to procure the 12-seater helicopter AW 139 for $15.95 million.

Meanwhile, the CM also decided to establish two development authorities, the Thar Development Authority and the Kohistan Development Authority, through two separate ordinances, for which he directed the law department to complete the formalities within a week.

On the proposal of provincial information minister Sharjeel Memon, the CM approved a proposal to conduct a study for the establishment of a housing scheme in the drought-affected area of Thar. Under this proposal, 6,000 two-room houses would be constructed within a compound wall. The scheme would also offer all basic civic facilities, such as health, education, water, sanitation and recreation. It would further have a commercial corridor with a cattle colony, dairy farms and markets.

These houses were proposed to be provided to drought victims from the remote areas of Tharparkar district free of cost. They would be unsellable for a period of 99 years.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2014.