Gurgaon's fire tenders get past pollution hurdle

GURGAON: Ten new fire tenders, which were lying idle despite having been acquired by Gurgaon fire department months back, are likely to be pressed into service on Monday. These fire engines don't comply with BS-IV standards and the NGT has barred registration of BS III vehicles. The regional transport office (RTO), however, has agreed to make an exception for the fire department because the order of these vehicles was placed much before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) guidelines were issued.

"Even though the vehicles were delivered after the NGT issued its guidelines, our order was placed in March," said an official in the fire department.

Earlier, Gurgaon RTO had refused to register these vehicles. The fire department then planned to get the vehicles registered from Panchkula under the name of director, fire services. However, the issue has now been resolved with the RTO being convinced by the fact that order for the fire engines was places in March and only delivery took place after NGT issued guidelines in this regard.

This year, local fire services has received ten new fire tenders, including two hydraulic platforms, three water bowsers, one foam tender, one high pressure mist unit, one water tender and one rescue tender. Three water bowsers were received in July, while rest of the seven vehicles arrived in the city last month.

Explaining the matter further, senior fire officer IS Kashyap said, "We had purchased chassis of these vehicles last year. Also, the orders for fabrication of the vehicles were placed by a committee sometime before the NGT guidelines were issued. We informed the RTA about all this and now we have got the permission to register the vehicles in Gurgaon."

The fire department will pay Rs 2,80,000 as registration fee to the RTA. With the addition of the new tenders, the city fire services will have 28 fire engines.

Gurgaon fire services faces a severe crunch of infrastructure. While few vehicles have out of order, a jeep from Sector 29 fire station and a water mist unit from Udyog Vihar station were burned down by mob in May last year during a demolition drive in Nathupur. Apart from these, at least five tenders have completed 17 years on road and will soon become redundant in accordance to NGT guidelines.