Mumbai : All dilapidated structures with broken wires will be inspected and those found to be hazardous would be rectified before the onset of the monsoons, said the general manager (GM) of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, Jagdish Patil, on Friday.
The initiative has been taken by BEST following the fire at Gokul Nivas in Kalbadevi, which claimed the lives of three fire officers. Further, an inquiry will also be conducted to understand why there were no lights provided at the site of the fire.
The officers from Mumbai Fire Brigade had to carry out the rescue operation with scant light from the adjoining building. The issue was raised by BEST committee member Akash Rajpurohit, who made several calls to the BEST customer care department to put lights up, with his calls falling on deaf ears.
Rajourohit of the BJP said, “The fire broke out at 4 pm and within a few hours it was pitch dark. When I called the customer care department, they asked me for my electricity bill. Moreover, even after several hours, there was no sign of any vehicle.”
“Had the BEST provided the electricity needed, the rescue operations would have been carried out in a swift manner. BEST, as an organisation, could at least take some responsibility and put up halogen lights,” Rajpurohit added.
BEST GM Patil said, “We will check as to what the standard operating procedure is and when the disaster vehicles reached the site.”
Special buses for MbPT and SEEPZ employees
in a bid to increase revenue, BEST will be operating special buses for employees of Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and SEEPZ. There will be four buses run for MbPT employees while BEST is also tying up with diamond operators in SEEPZ, where they will be catering to roughly 60,000 workers. An official from BEST said, “We will be setting up a small office there and will be issuing passes to all the workers. They will not have to come to BEST.”
BEST committee member Akash Rajpurohit said that he had called BEST’s customer care department after the fire so that lights could be put up for the rescue operations, but his calls went unheeded
