A meeting convened by mayor A K Premajam with the owners of the shops
and trade organizations on Monday has proposed to change the roofing of
the entire stretch of old buildings
near the Second Railway Gate, where a few shops were recently gutted.
The civic body is of the view that fire can be controlled to a great
extent if the tile roofing, and wooden panels of old buildings are
replaced with concrete roofs.

“The Kerala Municipality Building
Rules doesn’t allow the civic body to grant permission to the owners of
the old buildings to make alterations. Hence, we will approach the state
government seeking special permission to change the roof tiles of old
buildings damaged in the fire accident at the Arabind Gosh Road Junction
near the Second Railway Gate on August 7,” said the mayor. Eights shops
were gutted in the mishap.

The meeting has also decided to
concrete the roofing of the entire stretch of buildings at the mishap
site to avoid similar incidents in future.

In the meeting, mayor
Premajam urged building owners to submit their proposals for converting
the roofs. The corporation authorities will submit a consolidated
report to the state government on the basis of the proposals, she said.

Meanwhile, the merchant association in the city has decided to conduct
an awareness programme among traders to switch off the main switch and
other electric equipment while closing the shops to avoid electrical
short-circuit causing fire. The move was taken after finding that many
shopowners in the city are not switching off the main switch and other
electrical equipment at the shops.

“We have started conducting
awareness programme among traders to change the worn-out electricity
meters, main switches and wiring. We have urged the merchants to install
fire extinguishers too,” said K P Sudhakaran, president of the City
Merchants’ Association.

A proposal to change the roofing of the
entire stretch of old building near the second Railway Gate is mooted in
the meeting convened by Kozhikode Corporation Mayor A K Premajam with
the owners of the shops and trade organisations.

The meeting
held at the mayor’s chamber on Monday decided to submit a proposal to
the state government urging the government to grant special permission
to change the roof tiles of the old building damaged in the fire mishap
at the Arabind Gosh Road Junction near the Second Railway Gate on August
7. Eights hops gutted in the fire mishap occurred on the day. The
meeting decided to concrete the roofing of the entire stretch of
building at the mishap site to avoid similar mishaps in future. Mayor A K
Premajam has urged the owners of the building to submit proposals to
submit to the state government. The city corporation authorities will
submit a consolidated report to the state government on the basis of
proposals submits by the owners of the shops. The civic body is having
the view the spread of fire can be controlled at great extent if the tile roof and wooden panels of old building is changed at the site.

Mayor A K Premajam said that at present the Kerala Municipality
Building Rules doesn’t allow the civic body to grant permission to allow
the owners of the old building to make alterations. We need permission
from the government hence we have decided to approach the state
government to grant permission to make concrete roofing to avoid similar
mishaps in future,” said the mayor.

Meanwhile, the merchant
association in the city has decided to conduct awareness programme among
traders to switch off the main switch and other electricity equipment
while closing the shops to avoid the chances of fire mishaps due to
short circuit. The move was taken after finding that many shop owners in
the city are not switching off the main switch and other electrical
equipment at the shops.

We have started conducting awareness
programm among traders to change the worn out electricity meters and
main switches and wiring to avoid fire mishaps due to short circuit. We
have urged the merchants to install fire extinguishers to avoid fire
tragedies,” said K P Sudhakaran, president of City Merchants’
Association.