Out of the total 265 fire stations in the united Andhra Pradesh, only 93 of them are located in Telangana, while the rest 173 are in the now separated region. Post-bifurcation, the officials from the Telangana State Disaster and Fire Response Department believe that now is the time to fill the gap, as the need to add more fire stations to the response teams was neglected in the past.
Safety normsA senior official from the Fire Department informed that as of today, 23 constituencies in Telangana do not have fire stations. “As per the fire safety norms, there should be one station per 50,000 people. As of now, there is one per 3.5 lakh people in the State,” he said, requesting anonymity.
He further stated that the department also requires more personnel as many from the State have shifted to Andhra Pradesh.
As per the department’s data, Hyderabad district has the highest number of fire stations, with 15 in the city, while Ranga Reddy district has 12 stations.
In Andhra Pradesh, out of the present 172 fire stations, the highest are in Krishna district which has 21 of them, while East Godavari district has 16.
A senior officer from the city explained that the number of fire stations set up in the united Andhra Pradesh depended on the local MPs, and their efforts to sanction the stations in their constituencies. “That is why there is a lacuna here. However, some districts in Andhra Pradesh are more fire-prone, so the numbers there are higher. Otherwise, it depends on each MP to initiate the process to set up stations,” he said.
Two stations sanctionedOn a positive note, the Telangana government has sanctioned to build two new fire stations at Cherlapally and Genome Valley areas in Hyderabad.
Senior officials from the Fire Department said that many more proposals have been sent to set-up more fire stations and decisions are awaited about their approval.
