Fire in basement of Mumbai's BKC metro station hits services

A fire broke out in the basement of the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) underground metro station in Mumbai on Friday afternoon, leading to suspension of rail services there for more than two hours as a precautionary measure, officials said.

Image used only for representation. Photograph: ANI Photo

Nobody was injured in the blaze that erupted around 1.10 pm in the non-operational A4 entry/exit of the station that is under construction, they said.

The fire was confined to wooden sheets, furniture and construction material at a depth of 40-50 feet of the station located in Bandra East, causing heavy smoke in the operational area of the station, the officials said.

"Nobody was injured in the fire incident," a civic official said.

Eight fire engines and other fire brigade vehicles were rushed to the spot. The fire brigade was assisted by the personnel of city police, Adani Power, 108 Ambulance, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), Public Works Department (PWD) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) local administrative ward staffers in the firefighting operation, he said.

The fire was extinguished after nearly two hours of efforts. It was doused at 3.11 pm and the metro services, which were suspended at the station, were restored after that, the MMRC said.

The BKC metro station is part of the 12.69 km-long Phase 1 of the MMRC's Mumbai Metro Line-3 (Aqua Line) connecting BKC and Aarey JVLR. This line was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.

In a statement issued at 3.35 pm, the MMRC said the fire occurred near the 'non-operational A4 Entry/Exit of BKC Metro Station which is under construction'.

The blaze was completely extinguished and metro services were normalised after getting clearance from the fire department at 2.45 pm.

The fire led to leakage of smoke into the operational portion of the station premises and hence metro operations at the station were temporarily paused as a precautionary measure for the passengers' safety, it said.

'Metro services in the rest of the section between Aarey JVLR and Bandra Colony were in normal operation,' the MMRC stated.

On October 21, a fire had broken out on the ground floor of the Mandai metro station in Pune city, in which nobody was injured.