State orders 8 civic bodies to plan for better fire safety

The fire that gutted Lotus Business Park in Andheri last month and exposed grave loopholes in the city's fire safety system has prompted the state government to conduct a review of the city's fire services.

In a meeting held at Mantralaya yesterday, civic officials were asked to conduct a comprehensive review of the fire services infrastructure in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). For the meeting, principal secretary of the Urban Development department, Shrikant Singh, called on the commissioners of eight civic bodies from the region.

The directorate of fire services made a presentation on the infrastructure required to deal with incidents of fire. The civic bodies were then asked to work on issues related to fire services and submit an action plan within two weeks. The government does not want a repeat of incidents like the fire at Lotus Business Park, Singh is believed to have told commissioners.

He was also particularly upset over the death of Nitin Ivalekar, a fireman who died trying to douse the flames. Most civic bodies face shortage of manpower and equipment. With limited budgetary provisions, civic bodies have been putting pressure on the existing manpower, but the lack of equipment can expose them to danger further, it was discussed.

While Navi Mumbai civic commissioner Abasaheb Jarhad, and BMC additional commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh were in attendance, no representative were present from MMRDA, which is the planning authority for MMR.