Filed by NidhiLudhiana: To establish a fire station in the West constituency, the Ludhiana civic body officials have finalized a location near Phullanwal Chowk. The tenders have already been floated for this purpose and it is expected that in the coming days the construction work will start at the ground level.Initially, one piece of land was selected at Lodhi Club Road where the civic body had allocated shop-cum-offices a few years ago, but then it was shifted to BRS Nagar market where the MC had installed a compactor to settle down the garbage being collected from nearby houses. The officials had plans to shift the compactor to some other place and then fire station could be settled there. However, the shifting became a tough task so they decided to identify another location. The fire station at this location will help in quick response to the areas near Pakhowal Road as well as BRS Nagar in case of any fire incident.The city has central fire station, Sunder Nagar fire station, Focal Point, Hambran Road, Rahon Road, Tajpur Road and Gill Road fire stations. To cater to the areas falling at this side of the city, especially the West constituency where most of the residential areas are located, dependence was mainly on Hambran Road fire station. However, the sources revealed that fire officials wanted a station near Verka milk plant or near PAU gates from where response would have been quicker. The cost of this fire station would be Rs 1.81 crore.Superintending engineer of MC Sham Lal Gupta said they had identified the location and very shortly the work would start there. He added that another fire station was expected in Dhandhari and tendering process for the same had been completed.The fire stations are the need of the hour but there will be requirement of more staff in the department, The recruitment of the firemen on additional posts is still pending. The officials claimed that proper recruitment process would take place and then more firemen would join the fire brigade. With the adequate number of firemen, the fire brigade will be able to handle more fire incidents.
