Facility launched to cater to road accident injuries

FWO Model School and Trauma Centre, located on Super Highway, inaugurated

KARACHI: According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistic (PBS), 51,525 people lost their lives in road accidents in Pakistan during the years 2004 and 2013. Of these, 9,639 died in road accidents in Sindh. While there are measures needed across the country, the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) has set up a public school and trauma facility on the Super Highway in Karachi in order to prevent deaths that are a result of such accidents.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Governor Ishratul Ebad Khan inaugurated the FWO Model School and Trauma Centre at Dumba Goth on Super Highway on Wednesday. It is located at a distance of four kilometres from Toll Plaza. The concept behind the establishment of the school and facility is based on FWO's corporate social obligation to provide good quality education to the youth of the area while charging a meagre amount of fee.

According to Shah, the trauma centre was badly needed at Super Highway as there was no suitable facility to provide medical treatment to those injured in road accidents in the vicinity. "The centre is properly equipped with latest gadgets to provide complete health facilities to the villagers, including women, living near the Super Highway," he said. The chief minister added that he was working to improve all the roads of Karachi and beautify important roundabouts besides providing necessary facilities to the denizens of the city. Shah said that the ratio of road accidents has increased in the wake of reconstruction work being carried out on the Super Highway. He urged upon the National Highway Authority to construct diversions properly.

Game changer

According to Shah, the school will be a game changer in the education sector as it will impart good quality education to the children of rural areas of Karachi.

He was of the view that the FWO was playing an important role in the development of the province since it is also constructing and upgrading Super Highway to Motorway. "We have given them K-IV project, which the FWO has started at six-year-old cost and is completing it within two years of record period instead of four years," he said. "This will be a great contribution." Earlier, the chief minister and the governor planted a sapling of a tree while inaugurating the FWO Model School and Trauma Centre. Later, the chief minister, along with FWO director-general Major General Mohammad Afzal and chief secretary Siddique Memon took an aerial view of the under-construction K-IV bulk water supply project.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2016.