Narrow lanes delay fire response as Sadar Bazar fails to learn its lessons

Although the Bhim Nagar fire station is located just three kilometres away, the fire department officials took up to 20 minutes to reach the blaze site in Sadar Bazar

Although the Bhim Nagar fire station is located just three kilometres away, the fire department officials took up to 20 minutes to reach the blaze site in Sadar Bazar. For other fire tenders from different parts of the city, it took them nearly 35-45 minutes as the conditions in the city’s oldest market once again proved to be a major hurdle for rescue and relief operations.

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The delay in reaching Sadar Bazar during a fire incident is not unfamiliar to the fire department in Gurugram. When a three-storey building was gutted in fire after firecrackers stored inside a godown caught fire in August 2016, the fire department officials took nearly an hour to reach the spot. The officials took over 30 minutes after a four-storey bakery caught fire in October 2015.

Commenting on the fire incident on Wednesday evening, IS Kashyap, assistant divisional fire safety officer (ADFSO), said the delay was due to the traffic jam in the evening. He attributed it to the vehicular congestion in Sadar Bazar and the panic situation in the market area. At least 25 fire tenders were dispatched to the location. The same reasons had been cited for the delay in the past two incidents.

The fire department officials took over nine hours to douse the flames on Wednesday. They admitted that a swifter response could have limited the blaze.

“When the first batch of fire tenders arrived at the spot, the blaze was limited to the top floor of each of the building, and it seemed that it could be controlled through quick response. But the time taken by the remaining fire tenders to reach the spot led to a massive delay in executing a comprehensive dousing operation,” said Kashyap, adding that despite the Gurugram traffic police cordoned off a 200-metre section of the Jail Road — between Harish Bakery and Sohna Chowk — and diverted vehicular traffic to alternatives routes till Thursday afternoon, the sheer vehicular congestion inside the market at Basai Road, and the panic situation resulted in further delay.

“While the fire tenders got caught up in the peak evening traffic jam on Wednesday, we had to endure a further delay as there were a large number of vehicles parked inside the narrow lanes of the market. We had to find vehicle owners and get them to move them elsewhere as we could not access the site properly,” Kashyap added.

The incident occurred when the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) was executing its second pedestrian trial at the market. In the first trial, the market was supposed to be completely vehicle-free , but on March 20 — the first day of the vehicle-free trial — the MCG faced heavy resistance from the shopkeepers as they wanted to allow entry of vehicles into the market, citing a business loss. The MCG ceded to the shopkeeper’s demands following deliberation.

Vinay Pratap Singh, commissioner, MCG, said that the civic body is pushing for making the market vehicle-free following the fire incident. “The fire incident at the market highlights the importance of making Sadar Bazar a vehicle-free zone. Our utmost priority is to safeguard the residents, and we are trying to familiarise customers and shopkeepers with the need to stop bringing their vehicles into the market through the ongoing pedestrian trials and aiming to make it a permanent feature amid gradual changes,” said Singh.

Jitender Kumar, joint commissioner, MCG, had stated last week that the civic body is contemplating to make the market a vehicle-free zone in its third trial. Kumar couldn’t be reached for a comment on Thursday.

Bablu Gupta, president, Sadar Bazar Traders Association, admitted that a lot of vehicles are parked inside the market, especially near the street where the blaze occurred. He said that the MCG needs to provide adequate parking measures before kick starting the vehicle-free trial. “The entire situation is a like double-edged sword. While we acknowledge that the streets at the market are too narrow for vehicular movement and it is a major obstacle in rescue and relief operations, unless the MCG provides adequate parking facility, a vehicle-free trial will remain redundant. Where will shopkeepers and customers park their vehicles without any proper parking facility,” said Gupta, adding that the MCG’s construction project of multi-level parking for Kaman Sarai and Sadar Bazar — both located in opposite ends of the market — is yet to start, despite a foundation stone being laid in November 2018.

The MCG has faced litigation issues, land acquisition problems, and design challenges for the project over the last three years, and the project remains in a limbo.