89 new trucks to help DFS speed up rescue operations
Karn Pratap Singh
NEW DELHI: Keeping in view the rising number of fire incidents in the city and in order to improve their response time, the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) are currently in the process of purchasing 89 new fire trucks, senior fire department officials aware of the development said.
After obtaining approval from the Delhi government, the fire department has placed tenders on the Government e-marketplace (GEM), an online platform for public procurement in India, seeking quotations from potential sellers or suppliers, said DFS chief Atul Garg. “The addition of 89 new firefighting vehicles will help us improve our response time across Delhi. It will also help us overcome the shortage of fire tenders at many fire stations. Presently, some stations have just two or three fire trucks and when any major fire takes place in those areas, we send vehicles from other fire stations,” said Garg, adding that there are 64 fire stations across Delhi.
The approval for purchasing 89 new fire trucks was sought against the condemnation of 60 fire trucks, which have diesel engines and have reached their expiry time of 10 years, and have to be taken off service.
“Diesel and petrol vehicles that are older than 10 and 15 years, respectively, are banned in Delhi. The engines and chassis of most of the 60 fire trucks that have been declared condemned are still strong and functioning well. But as they are older than 10 years, they cannot ply on Delhi roads. Hence, these condemned vehicles will be sold as scrap and they will be replaced by new fire trucks,” said a fire officer, requesting anonymity. Fire department statistics show that it received 9,560 fire and rescue related calls between April 1 and June 30 this year. The number of calls is nearly 2,000 more than the calls received during the corresponding months in 2021. In 2020, during the same period, 5,994 calls were received by the fire department.
The fire department has also initiated the process of refurbishing three existing imported sky lift trucks, which can reach a height of up to 50 metres, as their chassis have rusted and damaged with the passage of time but the engines are still strong. It has tied-up with a private company for refurbishing of the three aerial hydraulic fire trucks.