Designate lane for unhindered passage of fire engines, ambulances at Nehru Place: HC

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Thursday directed authorities here to ensure a designated lane is earmarked for unhindered movement of fire engines and ambulances at Nehru Place where a fire incident took place in August.

A bench headed by Justice Manmohan, hearing a PIL initiated by the court on its own after taking note of the incident of fire in a building at Nehru Place, District Commercial Centre, passed the order in view of the report of a mock fire drill, which informed neither the fire engine nor the ambulance could reach the place where the blaze broke out.

The bench, also comprising Justice Navin Chawla, directed the Delhi Police, the Delhi Development Authority and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation to ensure the recommendations made in the report are implemented at the earliest.

“Respondents are also directed to earmark a lane for emergency services so that the fire brigade and ambulance can reach Nehru Place at the earliest without any hindrance/obstruction. DCP (Traffic) will ensure that the said lane is not encroached upon and is always free for movement for fire brigade and ambulance,” the court ordered.

The bench further directed that the members of the committee, which was set up to keep a watch on the issues, along with lawyers representing DDA, SDMC and Delhi Police, visit the area within the next 14 days and prepare a report.

“This Court also directs Mr. Arjun Pant, Mr. Sanjay Lao, Mr. Divya Prakash Pande, Advocates along with members of the committee in particular, Chief Engineer Project, Additional CP (Traffic), Additional CP, South-East and Deputy Commissioner, Central Zone to visit Nehru Place within the next fortnight at a mutually convenient date and time and file a status report,” it said.

The court further directed the authorities to ensure that no other individual or entity, other than 95 vendors who have judicial orders in their favour, hawk in and around Nehru Place.

“Even the identities of the 95 vendors shall be verified and the respondents shall ensure that the vendors comply with the terms and conditions of Tehbazari/vending”, the court added.

The court also asked the Delhi Jal Board to file its status report in the matter.

The report of the mock drill, filed by Delhi fire service, stated that while none of the vehicles could reach the place where the fire took place, fire tenders could only access the upper plaza while the lower plaza was not reachable.

It was informed that the time taken by the first fire unit was 11 minutes which indicated the existence of significant hindrances due to heavy pedestrian movement, heavy traffic, hawkers and parking problems.

The report recommended that the entries to the upper plaza as well as lower plaza should be made clear by removing the Boom barriers, barricades etc and all the levels must be approachable to fire engines by minimum six-metre wide motorable road/ramps.

It was added that the place may be made a hawker-free zone and the side parking should not be allowed.

While initiating suo motu proceedings on August 13, the court had said the enormity of the problem caused by hawkers and vendors at the Nehru Place area, which could be seen from a video circulated on social media, showed that it was difficult for the fire tenders to access the building where the fire broke out.

The court had noted that in between high-rise buildings in the area, hawkers and vendors have claimed the pavement area which was meant for the movement of people.

The court had also said that a video on social media showed “complete lack of any cleanliness or maintenance on the part of the Municipal Authorities.” On the last occasion, the court had directed the Fire department to conduct a mock drill on a working day and identify the shortcomings.

The court was informed by counsel for DDA that a committee has been formed comprising chief engineer of DDA, DCP (South East) and DCP (Traffic) and other officers, to keep a watch on any issue which may emerge in relation to Nehru Place.

The matter would be heard next on November 10. PTI ADS TIR TIR