Officials say department is planning to ditch MTNL and switch to private service providers; fire brigade’s internal hotlines bearing inflow and outflow of calls for now
An operational Mumbai Fire Brigade control room. FILE PICS
The Mumbai Fire Brigade’s control room helpline has not been operational on several occasions over the past month, with the officials citing problems with MTNL connection. The department is now planning to switch to private service providers such as Jio or Tata to navigate the challenges of unstable networks.
The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) provides essential telecom and data centre services to government entities, including the fire control room and other emergency services in Mumbai. The MTNL landline connects to the department’s command and control centre at the headquarters in Byculla and is one of the ways in which the Fire Brigade can be contacted by the citizens.
Fire stations across the city also communicate through the control centre. REPRESENTATION PIC/ISTOCK
Various fire stations across the city also communicate with the headquarters from the command and control centre. Due to the unstable connection on one phone line, the Fire Brigade’s internal hotlines are now bearing the additional inflow and outflow of calls.
Helplines
Fire Brigade control room number
+912223085992
Helplines for citizens in case of fires
BMC control room helpline for citizens 1916
National multipurpose helpline 112
Maharashtra Disaster Management Helpline 1070
Police helpline 100
Phones with MTNL connection at Fire Brigade HQ that are out of order
Official Speak
A senior official, Mumbai Fire Brigade
‘We run into network issues on the MTNL connection on a routine basis. Almost every other day, a representative from the Fire Brigade is assigned the task of going to the MTNL office and coordinating with the officials there to resolve the problem. Due to the persistent troubles, we are now planning to switch to a private service provider and take four to five connections either from Jio or Tata.’
Satellite-based hotlines
To navigate the network issues arising from the use of MTNL hotlines, the BMC’s disaster management control room switched to satellite-based hotlines in February 2025. This control room operated 63 MTNL hotlines earlier, facing frequent network issues. In case of emergencies, mobiles and high-frequency wireless systems are used for communication if the MTNL network is down at the same time.
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