CM admits failure to consider fire safety,says repair will include modern systems

Replying to questions raised by Opposition members first in the Legislative Council and then in the Assembly on Tuesday,Chavan admitted that fire-fighting mechanisms in the building were far from being state-of-the-art. “The building was built more than 50 years ago and unfortunately,the fire safety system was not updated through the years even as the number of employees,scope and amount of work,number of offices and cabins within the building went up. We did not take the issue of fire safety in Mantralaya seriously,” he said.

Chavan said since the fire alarm system was also old,it was not inter-connected between floors and rang only on the fourth floor and it was not loud enough.

About the preliminary reports,he said the forensic tests found no residue of inflammable substances or explosive substances. The statements of 197 eyewitnesses also corroborate that it was an accident,as does the CCTV footage and other evidence,he said.

Commenting on the response to the fire by various agencies involved,primarily the Mumbai Fire Brigade,Chavan said the response time was not bad but could have been much quicker. “I was also told that the fire brigade’s fire engines were not throwing water with a great force,because of which tankers belonging to oil companies were brought into use. These engines were much better than those available with the BMC.”

According to Chavan,up to 3,000 computers of the total 7,000 computers in the building were destroyed in the fire. However,10 per cent of the 46,400 files that were destroyed in the fire have been reconstructed,he said,adding that about 250 files were being reconstructed daily and his own departments would completely reconstruct all lost files in a month.

The chief minister also said all sensitive files had been scanned in the aftermath of the missing file case pertaining to the Adarsh scam. “As many as 7,093 files of the total 14,000 files in the Urban Development Department had been scanned and are hence safe. These include files related to Adarsh,Lavasa and other sensitive cases,” he said. While all electronic data is safe owing to back-ups and mirror files,he said the move towards paperless offices would begin soon.

On reconstruction of the damaged floors,Chavan said as per recommendations of experts from National Disaster Management Authority and the PWD,the seventh floor would not be reconstructed because it had a steel beam that has become weak. “We are drawing plans of restructuring floors four,five and six and exploring options of including the area of central courtyard to create one lakh sq ft of extra space within the building,” he said.