The New Delhi Municipal Council has decided to provide all its schools with advanced measures for disaster preparedness in the coming year. At the council meeting held at the Palika Kendra today, the members cleared a proposal on constructing fire safety mechanisms at all NDMC schools.

Fire escapes and underground water tanks will be constructed in all these schools to effectively handle any incidents of fire. “We have emphasised on fire prevention measures at the schools in the past as well and this is a continuation of that,” Mukesh Bhatt, a member of the council, said.

The council had previously initiated the work of constructing fire-escapes and underground water tanks at 17 schools. The cost of work on disaster preparedness in the first phase was estimated to be around Rs 91 lakh and approved by the council in March last year.

The Fire Department of the NDMC had specified designs and estimates on the required equipment for the projects earlier. This time too, the recommendations have been made according to their proposals.

Out of 51 schools under the NDMC, there are 18 nursery schools, 26 primary schools, and 11 middle schools. While some of them are housed in different buildings, others are housed in the same building. At least seven secondary schools, five senior secondary schools, and 11 Navyug schools also come under the aegis of the NDMC.

The deadline for completion of the work at the remaining 34 schools has been kept at nine months from the date of approval of the tenders. “We want projects to be completed as soon as possible and are also working on fixing deadlines for all projects,” Bhatt said.

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