Chandigarh MC to survey buildings taller than 15 metre for fire safety certificate

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, October 11

In the wake of the massive fire at the PGI, the Municipal Corporation has decided to do a survey of all private and government buildings that are above 15 metre in height.

Officials said as per the National Building Code of India, 2016, it is mandatory for all buildings above 15 m of height to have the fire safety certificate from the Fire Department. “We are soon going to start this survey,” stated Gurinder Singh Sodhi, Joint Commissioner-cum-Chief Fire Officer.

After the survey, the MC will list discrepancies found in particular buildings to its owners or the authorities concerned. They will be asked to remove these and apply for the certificate. Non-compliance would attract notices. As per norms, the department may even seal a building for not obtaining the certificate. The certificate is valid for three years and is to be applied online.

Previous surveys had

little impact

The MC has had ordered several such surveys in the past, but most building owners or authorities have not bothered about obtaining the NOC.

As per the data available till last year, of over 20,000 commercial establishments in the city, only about 1,000 have procured the fire-safety certificate/no-objection certificate from the civic body.

Fire extinguishers on all floors, automated sprinkler system, escape routes sans obstruction, natural ventilation and lighting, furniture treated with flame-resistant material are among several other fire safety norms required to obtain the NOC.

President, Chandigarh Industrial Association, MPS Chawla earlier urged the MC to make NOCs easy to procure so that they could obtain it and buy important firefighting equipment. Mayor Anup Gupta had earlier promised traders that he would resolve various issues cropping up in the procurement of the fire NOC.

PGI served notice

In its latest notice served on the PGI on Wednesday, the Fire Department has asked the premier hospital to remove discrepancies. Of its 16 buildings, only one, Nehru Extension, has the NOC. Thousands of patients daily visit the hospital. In the Monday night fire, more than 400 patients had to be evacuated.

22 hospitals sans NOC

As many as 22 government and private hospitals in the city have no fire safety certificate. These were pointed out discrepancies by the Fire Department. However, the hospitals are yet to remove these and their applications are under process. Twentyfour hospitals have fire safety certificate.