Seventy-one high-rise buildings in the city are yet to obtain NOC (no objection certificate) from the Department of Fire Services.
Disclosing this to the media here on Sunday, Additional Director (Fire Services) P. Venkata Ramana said that the classification such as hospitals, schools, shopping malls and apartments was not yet done. But all these buildings have not fulfilled the required fire safety norms.
To tide over these problems, the government has created a legal cell for the Fire Services Department and appointed a public prosecutor. Fifty-four cases were booked in Visakhapatnam city and about 600 in the State.
Admitting that the fire NOC needs joint inspection by different departments and there was a lack of coordination among the departments, he said the Chief Minister initiated the online application process under the e-Pragati programme. This would give transparency and accountability and would be in public domain.
Task force
Showcasing the efficacy of Bronto Sky-lift at the Lansum’s Oxygen Tower project, he said, “The Sky-lift is one of its kind in the State and was procured from Finland and can reach up to 54 metres. But with buildings such as Oxygen Tower which is over 100 metre, we have proposed for a sky-lift that can reach 125 metres. The department has also proposed for two such sky-lifts for Guntur and Vijayawada,” he said.
The department was also focussing on strengthening the Fire Task Force.
“Post Hudhud that hit Visakhapatnam in 2014, the Chief Minister had asked the department to build a quick reaction task force on the lines of NDRF. At present we have a 14-member task force in every district who are trained to handle all types of disasters from fire to floods and from building collapse to train accidents. The teams are being trained by specialised training institutes in batches and we have proposed for purchase of equipment to the tune of ₹30 crore under the World Bank AP Recovery project,” said Mr. Venkata Ramana.
Drawing comparison with AP Police Greyhounds who specialise in anti-Maoist operation, Mr. Venkata Ramana said that the task force would act as ‘fire commandos’. “The idea is to see that they will be the first to reach a disaster site, as they will have wider network across the State,” he said.
Talking about increasing the strength of the department, he said that proposal for filling 700 vacancies would be finalised shortly and the department has built 7500-strong volunteer force in the State. All volunteers have undergone training for four days and process of registration and training would be a continuous one.
“It is not the strength of manpower that is required. What is needed is more number of fire stations and fire engines,” he said.
