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.