Fire safety Part - VI: Building plan not okayed, hotels in walled city sans fire certificates

Charanjit Singh Teja

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Amritsar, April 11

A large numbers of hotels inside the walled city have no safety certificate from the Fire Department of the municipal corporation. Almost all these hotels are not authorised and have been constructed in violation of building bylaws.

In all, 800 hotels have been constructed in the walled city area during the last 10 years.

As owners of these hotels did not get the building plan approval from the MC, the Fire Department can’t issue a safety certificate.

But a recent inquiry in Savera Hotel case exposed that influential hoteliers managed to get fire safety certificates though the building was sealed by the MC for violation of bylaws.

“As per the rule, all these 800 hotels inside the walled city are illegal and not one is eligible to get fire safety certificate. But there are several hotels in the walled city where owners managed to get the fire safety certificate,” said an MC official.

After a ban on construction imposed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2012, hundreds of illegal hotel buildings have been constructed and became functional during the last 10 years.

These hotels not only violate the building bylaws but also fire safety rules and pose risk to human lives. There are several multi-storeyed hotels, constructed in three feet wide streets. In case of a fire incident or any such crisis, residents would be at major risk. The Chief Vigilance Officer of the Local Bodies Department identified a few such hotels in its report last month but no action has been taken by the MC.

Ironically, the MC did not get any revenue from the construction of these hotels as all of them are illegal. The owner of the under-construction Hotel Savera managed the fire safety certificate even though it was sealed by MC. With the connivance of MC officials, the hotel owner got the fire certificate and other NOCs, said a source from the MC.

Additional Divisional Fire Officer Dilbagh Singh did not respond to repeated phone calls made to seek his views in the matter.