This, said an official in the fire brigade, comes to just around Rs 8 crore for all seven municipal corporations of the state. Of this, how much can be allocated to the AMC can be left to the imagination of those watching the situation for quite some time, the official added.

Municipal commissioner I P Gautam admitted that there was a delay in arrival of funds from the Centre. “However, these are procedural things and we have no way but to wait till they materialise,” he said.

The need for at least six more fire stations in the city was realised when the census of 2001 revealed the city's population to be nearly five million. For every one lakh population, four fire tankers and one fire tender are required.

Also, setting up of new fire stations in the peripheries of the city has become imperative to reduce response time, said M F Dastoor, additional chief fire officer, who had worked out the requirement mapping two years ago in tandem with CEPT. The report was submitted to the Centre with a request for funds.

The proposed fire stations are to come at Naroda, Sola, Vastral, Chandkheda, Aslali and Makarba.

All of them fall on the Sardar Patel Ring Road periphery and will serve dual purpose of cutting response time by at least 10 minutes within and outside the city limits, according to officials.