Bay-watch to provide security to tourists: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked the members of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence to work with honesty and utmost professionalism for the welfare of the country.

She was inaugurating the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence Week 2015 at Fire Service and Civil Defence Complex in the capital's Mirpur area through releasing balloons.

Hasina said her government is implementing various projects to build this force with world-class rescue equipment despite limited resources.

She said work on a 50-bed burn treatment hospital for the Fire Service and Civil Defence is at the final stage while a plan is underway to turn it into a general hospital in future.

Besides, the prime minister said, the government will soon start a project to set up an international standard burn institute in the country.

Mentioning that dousing fire in multi-storey buildings is a big challenge for the country, Hasina said the state of the art equipment have already been procured in this regard spending Tk 200 crore. “Another process is underway to procure more equipment.”The prime minister thanked the Chinese government for providing some 50 ambulances, 100 towing vehicles, 150 fire fighting motorcycles, one big water-carrying vehicle, one foam vehicle and other rescue equipment for tackling disasters to the firefighters as grant under the MoU signed between Bangladesh and China during her visit to the country last year.

She informed the audience some 100 new fire stations have been set up in the country since 2009, while 298 are already in operation. Besides, work for constructing 251 more fire stations is underway which is being implemented through four projects.

She also said “Bay Watch” would be formed to provide safety and security to the tourists in the sea beach alongside providing necessary training to firefighters for conducting rescue operations in hilly areas in case of any accidents.

Hasina said with the support from Jica, a 10-storey administrative building of the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defense is being built while a world-class fire training academy is being constructed at Purbachal.

Earlier, the prime minister distributed state medals to the best firefighters and officials.