In order to strengthen the Fire and Emergency services of the country, The Central Government has chosen few states including Uttarakhand for procurement of new equipment under Uttarakhand Disaster Recovery Project (UDRP) with the help of World Bank. The Dehradun Chief Fire Officer said that the state will probably acquire the equipment by June this year.

Dehradun CFO Sandeep Kumar Rana said, “To strengthen fire and emergency services and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) the equipment are being provided. The proposal has been sent to them, the budget will be sanctioned by World Bank and administration. Our estimation of these equipments is of about Rs 16 crore.”

When asked about the time period in which state will acquire these equipment he said, “It is highly probable that will procure these equipment by June this year.”

The said equipment will come under seven categories including breathing apparatus, victim location cameras, under water cameras, thermal imaging camera, fire protection suits, basic search and rescue equipment which include rope launchers, sleeping bags and lastly multipurpose fire vehicle.

It is pertinent to mention here that Uttarakhand at present has 33 fire stations and three units with 11 more units ready to be set up. The new units will be located at Tyuni and Lal Tappar in Dehradun, Ghansali in Tehri, Purola in Uttarkashi, Gairsain and Badrinath in Chamoli, Bhagwanpur in Haridwar, Bazpur in Uddham Singh Nagar, Didihat in Pithoragarh, Srinagar and Thailsain in Pauri. About 970 fire fighters are giving services day and night in the state, though as per the sources about 400 posts of fire fighters are still vacant in the state. It is also worth mentioning that from April 14 to 20 National Fire Service week is being observed, during which various awareness programmes are being organised in the state.