KARACHI: Deputy Mayor of Karachi Arshad Vohra has said the induction of two modern fire fighting and rescue vehicles into the fire brigade department will further strengthen the department and more preclous lives can be saved with their help.

The handover ceremony of the vehicles was held at the KMC head office located on M. A. Jinnah Road on Thursday.

Speaking at the handover ceremony of the two vehicles presented by theJapanese government to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, the deputy mayor of the city said that keeping in view the increasing population of the city and construction of highrise buildings, the fire brigade and rescue department of the civic agency was being developed on modern lines.

He said Karachi`s population was larger than many countries hence its requirements of dealing with fire related emergencies had increased manifolds owing to which the KMC was making efforts to develop its fire services on modern linesand the addition of two new vehicles in the KMC fleet would help in fire fighting and rescue works.

He thanked the Japanese government for providing the fire engine and rescue trucks and added that this was the first time that modern vehicles were being added to the KMC fire brigade department which would certainly improve its performance.

Japanese Consul General in the city Yashuhara Shinto said on the occasion that the grant contract was signed in March and the government of Japan had extended a grant of $113,868 (approxi-mately Rs12 million) to the Karachi fire brigade department under its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP) Scheme.

He expressed the hope that the fire engines would help save many lives in fire related incidents in the city.

He said that the gesture of assistance from the people of Japan would further strengthen the cordial relations already existing between the peoples of both the countries.

KMC chief fire officer Tehsin Siddiqui, director of municipal services Masood Alam and others also spoke.