Himachal: Solan fire hydrant project stuck due to lack of budget

Himachal Pradesh: Even after a year of the state-level project appraisal committee approving the plan to lay dedicated water supply lines for fire hydrants in Solan city, no funds have been provided for preparing its detailed project report (DPR). The Rs 2.84 crore project was approved in a meeting of the appraisal committee headed by the principal secretary in November last year. The detailed project report was to be prepared and placed before the state-level technical committee for final approval. Since no funds have been provided for preparing the DPR, the Municipal Corporation (MC), Solan, which is implementing the project, could not make any progress. “The technical committee could approve or reject the project. If the project does not get the final approval of the committee, no funds will be provided by the state government for the DPR,” said Alpana Thakur, assistant engineer of the municipal corporation. As per the initial plan, a 29-km-long pipeline was to be laid covering 22 locations spread across all 17 wards of the city. Currently, all the hydrants are connected through main water distribution lines. This adversely affects effective firefighting due to inadequate water supply during emergencies as there is a significant drop in water pressure. It also affects regular water usage for households and commercial purposes. A dedicated water supply is required for Solan city as several incidents of firefighting operations being affected due to inadequate water from hydrants have been reported earlier. To identify the shortcomings, the Home Guards department, which oversees firefighting operations, had conducted an audit of available resources in 2021, in which lack of dedicated water tankers and absence of fire hydrants at prominent locations emerged as the main areas of concern. The audit report said that the absence of dedicated water pipe lines and non-functional hydrants have reduced the efficiency of firefighting operations. Out of 26 fire hydrants, four at old DC office and Sunny Side were found to be non-functional. To enhance the facilities, MC officials were asked to ensure round-the-clock availability of water from the dedicated pipeline. This project will address these deficiencies, thereby enhancing fire extinguishing capabilities as well as reducing response time and minimizing property damage due to fire incidents.