Cable theft knocks out Nagpur fire brigade's 101 helpline; NMC issues alternate mobile number

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation's (NMC) fire department, always ready for fires and accidents in the city, has itself been in trouble since Sunday. A BSNL cable was stolen somewhere, and the fire department's entire telecommunication system has been knocked out. The 101 emergency number, which can be dialled from anywhere, is also completely down.

NMC Chief Fire Officer Rajendra Uchke said it is not just 101 that is not connecting; the department's internal communication system has also failed completely. For now, fire stations are being contacted by mobile phone, but it has become difficult to deliver the service to people.

According to Uchke, all the city's fire stations together usually receive calls for about 10 incidents every day. Since 101 went down on Sunday, no calls are coming in. The fire stations' communication system is also down.

Citing information received from BSNL, he said the exact location from where the cable was stolen is being traced. BSNL has also assured that it will start an alternative service through an optical fibre cable as soon as possible.

In view of this situation, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation has released an alternate mobile number, 7030972200, for citizens. Until the service is fully restored, people can call this number in case of a fire, an accident or any other emergency.

Under the NMC's Fire and Emergency Services Department, the main control room for regional disaster management, the City Operation Centre, functions at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Administrative Building at the NMC headquarters in Civil Lines. The 101 number of this control room and other phone services linked to it stopped suddenly on Sunday night because of a technical fault.

The fire department is taking technical steps to restore the phone service. Until it is fully restored, citizens will have to use this alternate mobile number to contact the fire department.