Quarantine facilities: Sharjeel oversees Sindh govt's utilities plans for Hyd centre

HYDERABAD: The Sindh labour department flats pinpointed for setting up a quarantine centre in Hyderabad lack connections for electricity, gas and water.

In a meeting on Wednesday, Hyderabad deputy commissioner Ayesha Abro revealed that Rs83 million were urgently required for payment to the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO).

“HESCO has temporarily installed four power transformers, but establishing an electricity feeder requires Rs83 million,” Abro told the meeting, chaired by Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Sharjeel Inam Memon.

She said that the district administration had also paid for the supply of gas to the 3,000-bed centre being set up on the Hyderabad-Tando Muhammad Khan road on the city’s outskirts.

Water will temporarily be provided to the 1,504 apartment through tankers, as it will take the Water and Sanitation Agency months to lay water supply and drainage lines.

Meanwhile, HESCO superintending engineer Abdul Sattar Soho explained that the company could build a feeder within 15 days once the charges were paid.

Memon also asked HESCO to reduce the duration of loadshedding, pointing out that power demands had significantly dropped due to the closure of many offices and shops, including government offices.

He informed the meeting that 256 travellers from Iran to Hyderabad had been tested for coronavirus, while another 50 were among those quarantined in Sukkur.

Only one positive case of coronavirus has been reported in Hyderabad so far. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2020.