A provision of ₹227.07 crore has been made this year to upgrade the firefighting infrastructure as part of the Mumbai Fire Brigade’s (MFB) project ‘Programme for Enhancement of Emergency Response’ (PEER).
Five new fire stations to be constructed
This will include construction of five new fire stations and procurement of fire drones, quick response multipurpose vehicles, seven hydraulic and seven aerial platforms and two fire robots. The BMC will also undertake capacity building of firemen.
Just 33 fire stations in entire city
Currently, the city is under-equipped with just 33 fire stations as the average annual incidents are over 4,500. To modernise and strengthen the MFB, the BMC has undertaken new stations at Thakur village in Kandivali East, LBS Road in Kanjurmarg West, Juhu Tara Road in Santacruz West, Mahul Road in Chembur and Amboli at Andheri West.
Plans to procure new vehicles
There are also plans to procure new vehicles such as combined firefighting-cum-rescue vehicles with hydraulic and aerial platforms. The existing fire robot can send thermal images to plan rescue operations in the basement areas and on the ground floor. Therefore, the MFB has started the process to procure two more improvised robots for higher floors.