T.Nagar, one of the busiest shopping areas in the city, will soon get a fire station.
Announcing this on Saturday, Fire and Rescue Services Director R. Nataraj said the objective in establishing the facility, near Panagal Park, was to reduce the response time in the event of a fire or an emergency.
Though the nearest fire station now is in Teynampet, only a few km away from T.Nagar, it takes quite sometime for fire tenders to weave through the traffic.
One of the major fire accidents in the city in recent times was at Saravana Stores on the busy and narrow Ranganathan Street in T.Nagar in September 2008.
Mock fire drill
Mr. Nataraj was speaking to mediapersons after participating in a mock fire drill at the Indian Bank head office on Rajaji Salai.
He said the proposed facility at T.Nagar was among the seven new fire stations announced by the State government.
There are a total of 29 fire stations in the city.
He said there were 800-odd bank branches and 1,867 ATMs in the city and they were prone to fires caused due to short-circuits as these places had continuous power supply. Since 2006, there had been 16 fire accidents in Chennai city and so far this year there were six minor fires.
Indian Bank Chairman and Managing Director T.M. Bhasin said the bank conducted regular fire drills and was equipped adequately for fire fighting.
The bank would shift its head office near Royapettah in August.
