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Bengal

Model fire station to come up at New Town

Kolkata: The state Fire and Emergency Services department will come up with a model fire station in New Town that will be equipped with all modern infrastructure to effectively fight all types of fire incidents.

"We have set up a target of setting up 15 fire stations across the state by this financial year. Among these we will come up with a model fire station at New Town. It will have a modernised control room, full staff strength from its inception and state-of-the-art equipment for firefighting," said Sujit Bose, state Fire and Emergency Services minister.

As per plans of the department, five fire stations will come up in North Bengal. Cooch Behar will have two fire stations - one at Bakshirhat and the other at Nishiganj, while North Dinajpur will have one at Goalpokhor. Jalpaiguri will have one at Phulbari while Alipurduar will have a fire station at Jaigaon. In South Bengal, South 24-Parganas will have three fire stations- one at Pujali near Budge Budge, a second one at Majilpur in Joynagar and another one at Gangasagar. "We plan to make the Sagar fire station functional before the Gangasagar Mela in January 2020," Bose said.

The other fire stations on the radar of the state government are Galsi and Purbasthali in East Burdwan, Beldanga in Murshidabad, Panskura in East Midnapore, Sainthia in Birbhum and New Barrackpore in North 24-Parganas. The number of existing fire stations in the state stands at 141.

The department has already started conducting fire audits and 644 places have already come under its ambit, including shopping mall and restaurants. The minister on Saturday flagged off 53 new fire tenders.

The department will also introduce four robots in its fleet for more effective firefighting in the city. The necessary nod from the state Finance department for procuring the robots has already been received. The robots can be used in case of fire in highrises and also in cases of chemical fire.

The department, as part of its measures for modernisation, is also introducing fire balls. "The balls will be used to extinguish fire in very narrow and congested places or in locked buildings, where physical entry is extremely difficult. We have plans to procure 2,000 such fire balls," a senior official in the state Fire department said.

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