In 2011, a fire had hit the New Market at Margao resulting in a loss of Rs 1.5 crore. The vendors from both the New Market and the Gandhi Market had demanded that the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) complete the construction of an overhead tank for use of the fire services at the earliest. Inspections carried out had confirmed that none of the five fire hydrants in the town was working. This could leave the town vulnerable to a major disaster.
Four years later, not much has changed in the situation.
Assistant Divisional Officer of Margao Fire Station Nitin Raikar said that the department did follow up on the demand of an overhead tank and adequate pressure to fire hydrants for quite a while. However, due to lack of a further follow up by MMC and PWD the file has been blocked and they don’t know when it will clear. The officer added that for a town of the size of Margao the department needs at least two more good condition fire tenders. Presently, the Margao fire office has a new and an old fire tender, which need repairs all the time.
MMC’s Market Committee President Dayanand Mayenkar, while speaking about the progress of the overhead tank work said, “The file has been sent and is blocked with the PWD due to technical reasons. The municipality is making futile attempts of following up the works. There is no correspondence from PWD after that.”
Experts point out that the water pressure of the fire hydrants is far too less to be used by the fireman as the hydrants are connected to the public water supply system.
The F&ES had written to the PWD and the MMC to re-start the fire hydrants in the town, which required the construction of an overhead tank at the old fish market and to lay a dedicated water supply line to service the water tanks.
In 2008, the chief minister and Margao MLA had directed that the tank be put up following which sites near the old tempo stand and behind Lily Garments were inspected, but nothing materialized on that front until F&ES finally had suggested the old fish market. Till 2011, the work had not started.
Shopkeepers around Margao market had said that there are around five fire hydrants of which the only functional one was at the Margao fire station while the remaining do not have water connections.
Margao New Market Vendors’ Association president Vinod Shirodkar, speaking to Herald, said that the four water hydrants in the Margao market area are 20 years old and have no water pressure. They won’t be useful in case of even a small fire, he said.
“Nobody is bothered about the safety of the market vendors and the property worth crores of rupees. For the last six years the market association has been demanding an over head tank, and since then four major fire incidents have led to a reported loss of almost Rs 1 crore of stocks,” Shirodkar said.
The market association president says there is no hope from the government or the MMC as they have been only wasting time. Meetings take place, but the action is none.
