The upcoming truncated stretch of the East-West Metro, passing below the Hooghly for 520 meters, includes an elaborate fire fighting system. Like other state-of-the-art passenger amenities, the corridor, considered as an engineering marvel, has a technologically advanced system to handle any emergency situations of fire or smoke.
According to sources, the cables used in the tunnel are fire protected. If there is fire, there would be no smoke in the cables. The materials used are smoke free. Software has also been installed to monitor if there is any potentiality of fire in the system. There are automatic sensors due to which the alarm would start ringing once the smoke is detected. With this, the lift and escalators would automatically be stopped. “In the case of a lift running midway and the alarm going on, it would stop at the nearest operating point and then the only option of movement would be the stairs. In addition, there are cross passages and walkways to take the people from one tunnel to another in case of an emergency.
Advertisement
On top of the system, are the tunnel ventilation fans for air supply during evacuation, passenger congestion mode, enhanced heat and temperature modes and so on. There are around 200 ventilation fans. During fire, more fans would be operated to supply the air in the tunnel. The fans are to be operated in such a way that it does not aggravate the blaze or smoke in the affected area, “added the source.
As learnt, the Howrah Maidan station also includes a mammoth reservoir with a capacity of about 3.5 lakh litres of water that can be used for fighting. For evacuation during emergency situations, an evacuation shaft, an engineering marvel in itself, has been built just after the river near Brabourne Road. To ensure the efficiency of the system, continuous fire mock drills are being done in the stretch by the authorities.
