RTA offices in Hyderabad still sit on tinderboxes

HYDERABAD: More than a year after a fire broke out in the 80-year-old building housing the offices of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) at Khairatabad, authorities are yet to install fire safety equipment in most of its offices in the city and Rangareddy districts.
The RTA offices witness a heavy rush on a daily basis with hundreds of applicants visiting the offices for driving license, vehicle registration, no objection certificates and others.

A visit by this reporter to Khairatabad and Secunderabad RTA offices on Friday found that except for a few fire bucket stands, there were no equipment or fire exits.
According to auto unions, RTA offices in Ibrahimpatnam, Uppal, Medchal, Kukatpally, Kondapur, Attapur and Mehdipatnam too lack fire safety equipment.
M Dayanand, general secretary of Telangana Auto and Motor Welfare Union said, “I am a regular visitor to the RTA offices in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts. None of the offices have taken any measure for fire safety. There is no fire safety equipment or fire exits in the offices.”“In some RTA offices like the ones in Uppal, Nagole and Medchal, vehicles that have been seized for violation of Motor Vehicles Act are kept and there are hundreds of vehicles coming in for inspections, fitness and registration. Even a spark can cause a major fire in places where there are so many vehicles. This is not an issue that we can afford to neglect,” said Dayanand.
To make matters worse, some of the RTA offices such as the one in Mehdipatnam function from rented buildings where the authorities are not allowed to make major changes, for example, construct a fire exit or provide a safe area for vehicle inspections.
In January 2018, the Khairatabad RTA office had suffered damages after a short-circuit triggered a fire. The Fire Department had issued a notice to the RTA to prevent any untoward incident after the fire accident last year.
When contacted, district fire officer V Srinivas was unavailable for comment. When the issue was brought to the notice of Transport Department’s Joint Transport Commissioner C Ramesh, he said, “We have fire extinguishers and safety buckets. If the material expires, we replace them immediately.”