E Aurn
Port Blair, Jan 08: The fire accident of Industrial Estate has now raised many questions over the disaster preparedness of Industries Department. Though earlier there were reports that the Fire Services had underperformed but now reports are coming in that because of Fire Services Jawans, a major fire was actually averted yesterday. The only problem was that Fire Services found it difficult to operate inside Industrial Estate because of narrow roads.
“The situation could have been worse. As soon as Fire Services Jawan reached the spot they did excellent job. Even a Fire Tender was stationed at the spot for the whole night on watch duty,” Mr. Abhijit Agarwal, the owner of Wood Craft told Andaman Sheekha today. A portion of Wood Craft, a registered SSI unit, was gutted in yesterday’s Fire Accident.
But the larger question is that whether Industries Department has learnt anything from this fire accident.
It has been found that the road inside the Industrial Estate is so narrow that it took 15 minutes for Fire Tenders to reach the Fire Accident Site. Moreover on the said road many private vehicles were also parked, to make things further difficult.
People working inside Industrial Estate alleged that there is no Fire Point inside Industrial Estate, which may again result in major disaster in coming days.
When contacted the Director of Industries Department. Mr. M N Murali today said that the Industrial Estate of Bhatu Basti was developed long back and hence presently expansion of road is not possible.
“I got a complaint that the private vehicles are often parked inside the Industrial Estate. Later I issued notice that no private vehicle should be parked inside the Industrial Estate area,” he said adding that “I agree that the road inside Industrial Estate is in bad shape. We had constructed the road five years back. We have approved the estimated 46 lakhs and passed it to APWD to repair the road but till now the work has not been completed. We can’t expand the road but yes, we can repair it.”
When asked that what lesson the Industry Department has learnt from this fire Accident, Mr. Murali said that the Department will now talk to all the stake holders about this and record their views so that in future no such incident takes place.
Regarding Fire Point he said that the department will take up the matter with the Fire Services.
