Liftman’s death, fires prompt fresh demand for long-pending fire station in Andheri

On Thursday, Andheri West MLA and BJP Mumbai president Ameet Satam wrote to municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide, urging the civic body to expedite construction of the proposed fire station

Mumbai: The death of a liftman on Saturday due to a fire at the Runwal Elegante building in Andheri West has brought the focus back on a proposed fire station at Chitrakoot ground in Ambivli, which has been pending for nearly 35 years.

Liftman’s death, fires prompt fresh demand for long-pending fire station in Andheri

On Thursday, Andheri West MLA and BJP Mumbai president Ameet Satam wrote to municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide, urging the civic body to expedite construction of the proposed fire station. Satam referred to recent fires that had exposed the area’s vulnerability and urged the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to either reclaim the government land reserved for the facility, which was allotted to Shah Construction, or compel the developer to construct the fire station and hand it over to the civic body.

In the letter, Satam alleged that the suburb had been deprived of a fire station because of vested interests, and called for immediate action against illegal sheds and structures on Chitrakoot ground, where the fire station is slated to come up.

While the ground is spread over a vast area and houses synthetic turfs for sports and bill boards, around 1.5 acres of it was reserved for a fire station in 1991. A portion of the ground including the area reserved for a fire station was leased by the revenue and forest departments to Shah Construction, which was supposed to develop a fire station under AR (Accommodation Reservation) scheme and hand it over to the BMC. Development permission for the fire station was granted in 2023, but it expired in 2025, when it was validated again, subject to submission of bank guarantees worth around ₹1.3 crore.

Currently, the fire stations which serve the Andheri-Lokhandwala belt are located in Vile Parle and Goregaon, and fire tenders can take 45 minutes or longer to reach some parts of the area, particularly amid traffic congestion.

Residents said the spate of fires during Diwali had made the need for a dedicated fire station more pronounced.

“The alarming number of fires reported in the last couple of days has once again demonstrated how vulnerable this densely populated area is. One life has already been lost. Had there been a fire station closer to the locality, perhaps the death could have been prevented,” said Dhaval Shah from the Andheri Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizens Association (LOCA).

Shah said that repeated representations to the authorities had fallen on deaf ears and residents were now planning to launch a signature campaign. He also suggested that the BMC suspend licences issued to establishments operating from Chitrakoot ground, as such action could put pressure on the developer to either construct the fire station or hand over the reserved land to the civic body.

Speaking to HT, Bhide said that while the land belongs to the revenue department, the BMC had tried hard in the past to encourage the private lease holder to construct and handover the fire station, but to no avail. In July 2025, the civic body had also requested the Mumbai Suburban collector to hand over the reserved plot to the civic body, but the collector’s office had said that as per the memorandum of understanding between the developer and the government, the land could not be transferred without the developer first undertaking construction.

Subsequently, in August 2025, Shah Construction informed the BMC that it would construct and hand over the fire station by December 2026, whereas in January this year, the municipal commissioner approved a proposal to revalidate the development permission, which had expired in January 2025.

Bhide said that since work on the fire station had not commenced despite these assurances, the BMC recently requested the collector to cancel the lease and hand over the land to the civic body. “Accordingly, the collector has sent a proposal to the revenue department and the additional chief secretary of the department has assured of early action,” she said.