First green fire station in Mumbai on the anvil

Mumbai will soon get its first 'Green Fire Station' at the Priyadarshini park near Nepean Sea road in South Mumbai, civic officials said today. According to I A Kundan, Additional Municipal Commissioner, this green eco-friendly station will be having bamboo cladding, trees and creeper plants around it making it one its kind (non-concrete) structure.

The Nepean Sea stretch has a large number of high rises and has witnessed 495 fire incidents in the last five years prompting authorities to come up with a fire station in the area (Malabar Hill), a fire official said. The Nepean Sea road, Peddar road area does not have even a single fire station and Mumbai Fire Brigade was contemplating to set up one there in order to lessen the response time during golden hours, said another civic official.

Also, as per guidelines laid down by Standing Fire Advisory Council (SFAC), a central government body, there should be one fire station in every 10.36 square kilometres, he said. Chief Fire Officer Prabhat Rahangdale said that considering the need of a fire station on Nepean Sea Road, the BMC had reserved an area of 4098.52 square meters in its 1991 DP and the same reservation was also carried in the 2034 DP.

The DP reservation for fire station is on the land of 65,000 sq mt, which is owned by BMC. Mumbai Fire Brigade, one of the oldest in the world has 34 fire stations and 17 mini fire stations spread across the metropolis. A major fire at Mont Blanc in Kemps corner in 2013 had left seven persons dead.