Kolkata: State Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose will direct his officials to take up 200 fire audits in a month to speed up the process of fire audits in the city and its adjoining area. The minister has convened a meeting of all divisional officers at the headquarters of his department at Mirza Ghalib Street on Thursday, where he will take a detailed stock of the status of fire audits in residential, commercial complexes as well as shopping malls in the city. Presently, the department is conducting 150 audits on a daily basis. It may be mentioned that immediately after taking over as Fire minister in December last year, Bose had laid special emphasis on fire audits. The fire department has done audits in 1400 places and have stumbled upon lapses in fire fighting infrastructure almost in half of these establishments. "In a number of places we have come across malfunctioned wirings, sprinklers that have become defunct, fire extinguishers beyond expiry date and dangling wires that are susceptible to fire," Bose said. The minister talking about the steps taken to rectify the shortcomings added, "We have served notices and asked them to take immediate measures to rectify the lapses. If they do not do the needful, then action will be taken as per law." The minister further said that his department will have 11 temporary fire fighting infrastructure at Gangasagar Mela scheduled next month. "We have already arranged space to station two fire tenders at our fire station at Gangasagar which is still under construction. I will personally visit the place in December end to take stock of the preparedness for fire safety there and will place two fire tenders in the fire station," the minister informed. The department has introduced motor cycles fitted with fire equipment including both water and foam for faster intervention in narrow lanes and bylanes where it is difficult for the fire tenders to reach. In the financial year 2017-18 , the department has introduced 100 such motor cycles and in the ongoing fiscal it will be launching another 100 with an investment of Rs 8.55 crore. Talking on measures taken, Bose said, "We have also taken up awareness among citizens regarding prevention from fire hazards through hoardings and flexes and booklets have also been circulated among school students and people for awareness."

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