Kolkata: The state Fire and Emergency Services department will issue a notice to Kolkata Metro authorities after they stumbled upon lack of fire safety mechanism during inspection in all 24 stations in the North-South metro route in the city.
The department's inspection came in the wake of an incident of fire on December 27, 2018 that had left 16 people injured. The Fire Services department will also hand over a series of suggestions on revamping Kolkata Metro's fire safety mechanism to prevent similar incidents in future.
"Our team has found negligence on the part of Kolkata Metro authorities and the situation could have been brought under control much easily had their firefighting and disaster management systems been in place," alleged Sujit Bose, minister of state (Independent Charge) of Fire and Emergency Services.
The lacunae pointed out by the department include improper functioning of the alarm system, the public announcement system and lack of stretchers for carrying injured passengers.
"There was no fire alarm or detection system in the train and even if the facility existed, it did not function when the incident occurred. The smoke management system did not work. The firefighting equipments were nearly defunct. There was also a lack of trained personnel to evacuate passengers during the incident," said Bose.
A senior official of the department said that the suggestions include installation of smoke detection and alarm system, fire check doors and deployment of trained firefighting personnel.
"Fire audit and fire drills also need to be conducted at regular intervals," the official said. A proposal has also been given for installing an alternative lighting system. "If lights go off or there is some electric fault then there should be a back-up system so that passengers do not panic in the dark," he added.
Bose pointed out that Kolkata Metro is responsible for carrying several commuters daily. "Safety and security of the passengers should be given top priority," he maintained.
However, a spokesperson of Kolkata Metro said that they are yet to receive any such communication from the state government.