Safety checks likely in all high-rise buildings in City

Launching a hi-tech control room at the High Grounds Fire Station here, Acharya said more number of sky-lifts will be provided to the department to enhance its ability. Presently, 41 taluks of the State have no fire stations and the government will soon set up 30 more of them in different places, he added. The control room is an attempt to make the fire and emergency services more efficient. It can now monitor the movement of vehicles along with personnel during operations.

“This initiative is taken to make the force more efficient. As per the standard rule a fire fighter vehicle should reach the spot within three minutes. But it is not possible in a city like Bangalore with lots of traffic bottlenecks. So to curb this problem and to train our personnel to fight such odds, we are installing GPS kits in all our vehicles. This apart, our personnel manning the control room can track the movement of those vehicles and suggest them on how to avoid the traffic congestion,” said S Sandhu, IGP, Fire and Emergency Services.

The City has nearly 80 vehicles including 45 water tenders and the entire State has got 390 water tenders. “As part of the pilot project, we have installed GPS kits in two of our vehicles and we will be done with the process with rest of the vehicles across the State in couple of months. This apart, we have 12 fire stations right now in the City and we are also considering to set up four more within a short span of time,” Sandhu said.

The control room is equipped with high-end gadgets like GPS tracking kit, LCD monitors and a huge screen. Six trained personnel in a shift of eight hour will manage the control room along with two photographers.