One of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) oldest, most prized and celebrated snorkel ladder-fitted fire trucks is soon going to sail the seven seas to Finland for urgent repairs. The vehicle, part of the city’s fire department’s fleet, was used extensively to douse the fire at the Taj Mahal Hotel during the 2008 terror attack, commissioned into service during the devastating fire at the Mantralaya in 2012 as well as the fire that damaged the Jolly Maker Towers in Cuffe Parade in 2013.

The snorkel ladder-fitted fire engine will be shipped to Finland in the last week of July. Pic/Suresh KK

So highly does the BMC and the fire department value their favourite fire engine, that they are going to spend a whopping Rs 3.5 crore to repair the vehicle —R50 lakh more than what it cost them to buy the truck in 1998.

“It has to be shipped to Finland, since these machines can only be repaired by the company that makes them. Their workshop is in Finland,” a senior BMC official told sunday mid-day.