Mumbai’s civic administration will test prototype sirens at the Old Secretariat in Fort and the Civil Defence College near Cross Maidan on October 8 and 9, asking residents and visitors in the surrounding areas not to panic or interpret the sounds as an emergency alert.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said in a statement that the sirens would be sounded as part of a pre-planned equipment test. The civic body clarified that there is no actual emergency or threat associated with the exercise.
The prototype siren equipment has been installed at the Old Secretariat and its adjoining building in Fort, as well as at the Civil Defence College building near Cross Maidan. The equipment was developed by a team from the Centre for Development of Telematics under the guidance of the Director General Civil Defence, New Delhi, according to the BMC.
Residents in the vicinity may hear the sirens during the scheduled testing on Thursday and Friday. The BMC has appealed to citizens to cooperate with the administration and avoid drawing conclusions from the sound or sharing unauthorised information about the alerts.
The civic administration also urged people not to believe or spread rumours related to the siren testing. Its clarification is intended to distinguish the exercise from an operational emergency warning, as the equipment is being tested only to assess the prototype system.
The tests form part of wider discussions around Mumbai’s civil defence siren network. In October 2025, the BMC had sought financial support from the state government for the installation, testing, commissioning and maintenance of war sirens distributed by the Civil Defence Department.
At that time, 59 sirens had been allotted to Mumbai, while around 10 per cent had either been installed or were in the process of being set up, according to the earlier report. Government-owned premises had been identified as preferred locations because they could provide round-the-clock access and support long-term maintenance.
The current tests at Fort and Cross Maidan will therefore provide an operational check of prototype equipment at two government-linked locations in south Mumbai. The BMC’s next stated step is to conduct the scheduled siren tests on October 8 and 9 while asking the public to rely on authorised information and remain calm.
