A minor fire broke out at the Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radar (MSSR) building located behind the new fire station at Chennai airport on Tuesday evening.
No one was injured in the incident.
According to the police, around 7.45 p.m. on Tuesday, in one of the rooms of the MSSR building, there was a short circuit in one of the batteries housed there. This caused a fire which subsequently spread and 45 of the batteries burst. Fire personnel rushed to the spot and extinguished the flames immediately, the sources said.
“The batteries present in the room were spare batteries. Air navigation services were not affected as this radar is not functional as yet,” said a police officer.
On Tuesday morning officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI) had inspected the new fire station in order to commission it soon.
The new category 10 fire station is part of the airport expansion project and its construction began in 2011 at a cost of nearly Rs. 10 crore. Though the building had reached completion stage more than a year ago, operations continue to take place in the old building. .
“There are some more procedures to be completed with regard to the watchtower and control room. Once that is done we may be able to commission it soon,” said an official.
A government audit which was recently released stated the non-commissioning of the fire station had caused a loss of nearly Rs. 3 crore to AAI.
“The new fire station is located at the right spot, very close to the runway. Hence, tenders and fire fighters will be able to able to reach the spot in case of a fire well within the response time,” said an official.
Early in March, a fire which broke out in the Air Traffic Control tower as batteries burst disrupted flight services for a while.
