Hyderabad, March 06: Bringing much-needed relief to the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Response and Fire Service (APSDRFS), the state government has sanctioned funds for the procurement of fire tenders and the department could have 22 new fire tenders at their disposal by March end.
Officials of APSDRFS said the state government had already sanctioned Rs 4 crore adding to the Rs 2 crore tapped by the department under a central scheme.
“Using these funds, 36 fire tenders will be procured in the next one year with 22 of them made available by March 31 and the remaining 14 fire tenders made available by March next year,” officials said.
For the last few years, the issue of procuring more fire tenders was kept under cold storage for various reasons though there was a requirement for additional tenders.
“As of now, there are 316 fire tenders with a need for 137 new ones. But the state government has given its nod for only 36 new fire tenders,” officials said.
Few years ago, the APSDRFS had procured three Branto Sky Lift fire tenders from Finland, which are capable of handling fire accidents in buildings as tall as 54 metres. This time too, a few Branto Sky Lift fire tenders will be bought.
Meanwhile, the state government has re-constituted the stores purchasing committee for APSDRFS. The new committee members include director general of ADSDRFS as its chairman besides Commissioner of Industries, Deputy Secretary to Government in Finance department and Deputy Secretary to Government in Home department as its members.
However, the issue of the allocating land in various parts of the city to set up fire stations remained unaddressed despite the city witnessing several major fire accidents in the last two years.
—Agencies