The Delhi Fire Service (DFS) recently completed the recruitment process for 563 fire operators in a major step towards overcoming its long-standing manpower crisis.
“The training of 563 fire operators has been started and they will join the department by July this year. We have 1,253 vacancies, out of which 563 vacancies have now been filled. The rest of the vacancies will be filled after the recruited men join the department,” said Atul Garg, Chief Fire Officer, DFS.
The new recruits will ease the burden on existing staff who sometimes have to do double shifts, especially during emergencies.
“We are in the process of buying 100 more fire engines in big, small and large category by this year to meet our requirement. The procurement process of vehicles will be as per the National Green Tribunal (NGT) guidelines regarding vehicles,” said Mr. Garg.
The DFS has approached the NGT for exempting their vehicles from a norm directing that vehicles which are 10 years or older should be scrapped.
The DFS, however, claimed that fire engines are used only during an emergency and in the last ten years, most of their vehicles have run only 7,000-8,000 km. “We demand replacement of just the engines and not the entire vehicle because a single fire engine costs around ₹8 crore,” said Mr. Garg.
He added that the DFS is not able to register at least 60 new fire tenders purchased in March 2018 because the NGT has asked the department to submit an affidavit ensuring that no fire tender older than 10 years is being used.
“We have moved to Supreme Court to allow registration of 60 new fire tenders before we dispose off older ones to avoid any operational hazard. We demand induction and disposal of vehicles simultaneously in phases,” said Mr. Garg.
“This year, we are also expecting to launch a new fire station at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar. After this, the city will have 62 fire stations,” said the CFO.