LAHORE, April 7: The City District Government Lahore will install 135 fire hydrants in the far-flung areas of the city at a cost of Rs10 million.

Stating this while presiding over a meeting held here on Friday to consider ways and means for improving the performance of fire control services, district nazim Mian Amer said installation of fire hydrants had been necessitated in view of the fact that a large number of housing colonies had come up in the city during the past 25 years, but no new fire station had been established.

He said many colonies were far away from the 13 existing fire stations, and water lorries could not reach there in time after receiving information about a fire.

He said the fire hydrants would be installed in the localities away from the fire brigade stations so that the lorries could procure water from there instead of returning to fire stations for the purpose. He said there were only 13 fire stations in the city with 15 lorries for 400 fire fighters as neither any new fire station had been established during the past 25 years nor any lorry procured.

He said the CDGL had received two 13-year old fire lorries donated by the Glasgow City Council of the UK. Both the lorries were in an excellent condition owing to good maintenance. The lorries were equipped with 40-foot ladders whereas only 28-foot ladders had been installed on the old ones.

He said the city government had also allocated a sum of Rs9 million for the purchase of new fire fighting equipment, including fire suits and gas masks.