Nampally: All safety measures in place for All India Industrial Exhibition, Numaish

Nampally: With less than a month for beginning of All India Industrial Exhibition, famously known as Numaish, the authorities are leaving no stone unturned for ensuring safety on its 80th year. To avoid any untoward incident like the previous year's fire accident in which several shops were gutted, the fire-safety infrastructure is in its final stages.

The exhibition which witnessed up to 22 lakh visitors in the recent years, this time has taken up two major projects, including constructing two massive water sumps with firefighting system and underground electric wiring around the exhibition grounds, which are expected to be completed by the end of this month.

According to the officials, this year All India Industrial Exhibition Society is taking all the precautions suggested by the Departments of Fire and Police so that any fire accident is averted or brought to control within short time. "To avoid the circumstances, the society is constructing two huge water sumps with a capacity of 1.5 lakh litres attached with 3 massive motors to each sump with fire pipelines laid throughout the exhibition. The attachment of motors and laying of fire pipeline works are in progress and entire works will be completed by December 20", said B Nagraaj, Supervisor.

According to the officials, society is installing 3 types of fighting pipelines of 2,850 mt length and also installing a total of 85 fire hydrants points in every 200 meters area across the exhibition. The entire project is estimated to cost about Rs 2.1 crore.

Besides fire extinguishers, the society is placing water barrels and fire buckets at selected places in the grounds. Fire Department is indenting two fire engines and 2 Fire Motor Bikes. Mock drills will be undertaken before the start of Exhibition. Society will depute trained volunteers to operate Fire hydrant valves in case of emergency, said an official.

Also, signages, indicating the exit paths for public to escape in case of emergency will be placed at prominent places in the grounds. The pathways have been made broader so that Fire tenders could move freely to any part of the ground in case of any fire incident. This year society will not allow stall holders to use any kind of gas stoves for preparing food near their stalls.

As per the instructions of Chief Electrical Inspector, TS government, overhead electrical lines have been replaced with underground cable system across the Exhibition Grounds. While last year the society had laid underground cables of 880 mt length replacing 80 per cent of overhead power lines, this year the remaining 20 percent overhead power lines of 473 mts of length are being replaced. Almost the underground wiring works have been completed, official added.