Deccan Chronicle 03.02.2010
Civic body didn’t check safety rules
Hyderabad, Feb. 2: GHMC officials never bothered to verify the status of the building housing the Park Super Speciality Hospital, which was damaged in a fire in Somajiguda on Tuesday.
The building does not have fire safety equipment nor a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Fire Services Wing.
The plan for the building submitted in July-August 2008 was for a sub-cellar, cellar and ground-plus-four floors with a height of 15 metres. Buildings below 15 metres do not require a fire NOC.
An additional floor was added to the building but the GHMC did not act even though it had not given permission.
After the fire accident, the height of the building was measured at 19.7 metres, which brings it under the multi-storey category and makes it mandatory for it to have a NOC.
An occupancy certificate from the municipal corporation was not obtained for the building. As per GO 86, the builder has to surrender one floor to the GHMC, which is returned to the builder only after officials are satisfied that the building is constructed as per the norms.
Enquiries revealed that there are violations even in the area left for open spa-ces. Other fire safety equipment, which are mandatory but not provided in the building include a hose reel, a wet riser, a yard hydrant, a manually operated electric alarm system, automatic fire detection and alarm system, etc.
