10 fire tender chassis worth ₹1.16 crore gathering dust for four years in Jaipur
The vehicles were touted as the firefighting solution for narrow lanes of Jaipur’s walled city where the bigger fire tenders couldn’t enter.
Four years down the line, the 10 chassis of Ashok Leyland purchased at ₹1.16 crore to make fire tenders are gathering dust at a fire station in the Vishwakarma Industrial Area.
Chassis, the frame plus the running gear-like engine, used for transmission, drive shaft, differential and suspension, consists of an assembly of all the essential parts of a truck (without the body) to be ready for operation on the road.
In 2012-13, the state’s disaster management and relief department had passed a budget of ₹7 crore to purchase 10 chassis for water tender and 10 chassis for foam tender. But the fire department of the civic body only procured 10 chassis for water tenders in 2014.
Later, almost after four years in January, Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) received ₹10 crore from Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) in form of a fire cess and decided to utilise it for the fabrication of fire tenders on the chassis. For these, a tender of ₹4 crore was floated in May by the JMC for the fabrication work.
But the bidders stated that the amount quoted in the tender was very low and work cannot be completed in such a low amount. The minimum bid stated was of ₹10 crore. Following this, the tender was cancelled and a new tender of ₹5 crore was made and is still awaiting approval from the finance committee of the civic body.
“Earlier in May, the tender amount finalised for the fabrication of the chassis was low after which a revised tender has been created and most probably will get approved by the finance committee of the municipal corporation by tomorrow,” said Jagdeesh Phulwariya, chief fire officer, JMC.
Similarly, the special bikes purchased by the fire department of the JMC have been not utilised for the last two months. These 20 specially-equipped Royal Enfield Bullet (350cc) motorcycles were purchased by the civic body at the cost of ₹1.23 and were kept at Malviya Nagar fire station on June 22.
The vehicles were touted as the firefighting solution for narrow lanes of the walled city where the bigger fire tenders couldn’t enter. The chairman of the fire committee of JMC, Mukesh Lakhyani said, “We have forwarded the application to the regional transport office for the registration of bikes on August 19. Last month in July, we had also conducted a trial of these bikes to check their effectiveness.”
But when further asked on why the demo was not done before purchasing, Lakhyani said, “I was not the chairman of the fir committee when these bikes were purchased.”
Each of these bikes has two cylinders with 9.5 litres of water and foam. Two air cylinders are there to refill the main cylinders. Moreover, it was decided that ten bikes each will be deployed at the Ghat Gate and Bani Park fire stations to reach the Walled city area from two sides.