Don’t expect too much from probe into Bharatpur fire

But ammunition storage continues to be primitive–under tarpaulins and tents. Not much different from the artillery of Lord Clive in 1761 which covered its ammunition with tarpaulin to save it from the rains.

There is a sense of deja vu in the Ordnance Directorate. On May 10, 1989, a devastating fire broke out in the CAD Pulgaon. It was one of the worst in the history of ammunition depot fires. It spread to even the railway track and a railway wagon.

And on March 23, 1988, there was another fire at the Jabalpur ammunition depot destroying three magazines containing heavy-artillery ammunition. Such was the intensity that for three days, the depot had to be shut down due to flying splinters. There was a court of inquiry then too. It said that there should be proper handling equipment to move ammunition. The sabotage angle was also probed. “An important recommendation was that all ammunition should be stored under covered roof apart from saying all that was to be said again at Pulgaon,” sources in the Ordnance Directorate said.

“Even today 60 per cent of ammunition that the Indian army holds in its 15 depots all over the country is lying in the open,” said an official. “The problem is that policy makers are penny wise and pound foolish. Because they have four air-conditioners in their offices and homes, they feel that all sophisticated ammunition is also in proper air-conditioned accommodation as recommended by several courts of inquiry,” he added.

A senior official said that the recommendations are easier said than implemented. “We cannot do without elephant grass and other vegetation. Otherwise the ammunition depot will be open to enemy air attack. The elephant grass is excellent camouflage. It is just that the rules say there have to be fire lanes (30 feet between stacks) and no vegetation growth is permitted there. This is what at times leads to these problems,” he said.

He conceded that between 60 to 70 per cent of ammunition was kept either in the open or in tents. “The government needs to spend money to build pucca accommodation for the ammunition. Otherwise Bharatpur fire will be repeated not once but many times over,” he cautioned.

The army sees funds as a constraint. “But now most realise that it would have taken less than Rs 3,000 crore to build pucca accommodation and prevent these from recurring,” added an official. Lieutenant General (retd) Virender Pratap, former Director General Ordnance too said that Bharatpur would not have happened if the ammunition was in proper accommodation.