Hyderabad: It has been more than a year now since fire broke out at Regional Transport Authorities offices in a 80-year-old building at Khairtabad, the authorities are yet to install fire safety equipment across Telangana offices.
Despite RTA offices witnessing hundreds of people on day-to day basis with applicants for driving licenses, vehicle registration and to obtain other certificates, TOI reports.
These RTA offices in Khairtabad and Secunderabad are still not equipped with any fire safety equipment’s or fire exits except a few fire bucket stands and the same state are offices of Ibrahimpatnam, Uppal, Medchal, Kukatpally, Kondapur, Attapur and Mehdipatnam.
M Dayanand, general secretary of Telangana Auto
and Motor Welfare Union speaking to a media source said: “I am a regular
visitor to the RTA offices in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts. None of the
offices have taken any measure for fire safety. There is no fire safety
equipment or fire exits in the offices.”
He added: “In some RTA offices like the ones in Uppal, Nagole and Medchal, vehicles that have been seized for violation of Motor Vehicles Act are kept and there are hundreds of vehicles coming in for inspections, fitness and registration. Even a spark can cause a major fire in places where there are so many vehicles. This is not an issue that we can afford to neglect.”
And to add to their already existing worries,
these offices are not allowed to make any changes to these buildings since they
are commercial tenants .
When this issue was brought to the notice of Transport Department’s Joint Transport Commissioner C Ramesh, he said, “We have fire extinguishers and safety buckets. If the material expires, we replace them immediately.”