60 fires in 5 yrs but PCMC authorities are cool about it

Sixty major fires in Pimpri-Chinchwad’s Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area in five years have failed to wake up the authorities to the need for a separate fire station there.

This information was revealed by social activist Rupesh Patekar. He sought to know under the Right to Information (RTI) Act whether there was a separate fire centre to tackle the industrial fires in the area, the number of fire cases reported in past five years, and why there was no separate system to tackle fires in the industries?

Though PCMC provides fire service to industries with its own expenditure, the fire no objection certificates (NOC) for setting up of a new industry is given by MIDC. Still, in the past five years, 60 major industrial fires were reported in the MIDC.

PCMC has stated in its reply that PCMC was kind of a service provider to citizens, so it provides fire service to industries as well.
In its reply, the MIDC authority said: “MIDC had provided separate land to build separate fire stations at MIDC area in 2012 at Bhosari. But the land came under Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA) jurisdiction, so MIDC did not develop the fire centre.”

Patekar told reporters that due to the conflict between MIDC and PCMC, the industrial area never had its fire centres. He threatened that if both authorities failed to sort out their issue early that the activists will come on road.

There are 8,000 industrial units set up in MIDC area. On August 27, 2008, a major fire at a chemical unit called Sai Enterprises claimed eleven women’s lives.