Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 13: The Jal Shakti Department has failed to maintain water supply to over 105 hydrants that were installed to strengthen the fire safety system across Srinagar city as part of the Smart city project.
Officials from the Fire and Emergency Department said the facilities were set up all over the city, especially in areas where the nearest water source is a long-distance away. According to them, the installation of these pumps was expected to be of great assistance during firefighting operations, but the department’s lack of seriousness has squandered the entire initiative. “If these pumps do not have a continuous supply, they are useless because fire can strike anytime,” an official said.
While emphasizing the importance of the facility, he noted that a fire engine has over 70,000-80,000 litres of water stored in it and can exhaust in under seven minutes; however, “it sometimes takes time to refill it or arrange other vehicles and crucial time is lost in the process. “A fire hydrant, on the other hand, does not waste time because it provides high-speed water,” he explained.
He also said that the facility improves the firefighting capacity of the location where it is installed. “Aside from firefighting, these systems are also used in a variety of other applications,” he said adding that these facilities have, so far, proved ineffective during firefighting operations.
The officials pointed out that a fire hydrant installed in Srinagar’s Khanyar neighbourhood could not prevent a fire from spreading because of a lack of water supply last week. “The facility was useless. A fire that broke out last week in Khanyar damaged a Masjid, seminary, and several other structures in a matter of minutes,” an official said, as the fire hydrant that had been installed in the area was insufficient to put out the fire.
Iftikar Ahmad Wani, Chief Engineer Public Health and Engineering Department did not respond to multiple phone calls from this reporter.
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