KOLKATA: The KMC brass on Monday held a meeting with shopowners in the city and handed them guidelines for upgrading their fire safety norms.

The civic body's move follows close on the heels of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting on fire safety norms in city markets.

Close on the heels of chief minister Mamata Banerjee's meeting on fire safety rules in city's markets, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation top brass on Monday held a meeting with city's shop owners and handed over them a guideline for upgrading fire safety norms in all city markets.

It has been decided that a special task force - made up of KMC market department officials and police officers - will raid each private market twice every week, once during the day and the other at night. The objective is to check out whether outsiders are taking shelter inside the private markets and whether they are cooking on the premises.

The chief minister had expressed her surprise after the Surya Sen Market blaze took 21 lives - mostly outsiders who had assembled on the mezzanine floor of the four-storeyed building to spend the night. Owners of the private markets will be asked to engage private security guards to keep tabs on fire-safety norms. Activities of these guards will be monitored centrally by KMC market department officials.

Some of the traders' organisations which participated in the meeting include Federation of Traders Organisation (FTO), Federation of Traders' Association (FTA) and traders from Sealdah Koley market. The secretary of FTO, Rabindra Nath Koley, said that it was an uphill task for small traders to pay for modernisation of firefighting systems in private markets unless the KMC provided assistance.

After a week-long survey after the Surya Sen Market inferno, KMC officials have identified 278 markets in seven boroughs of the city which do not have even the basic firefighting measures in place. A team of KMC officials found some well-known and busy KMC markets in a mess in terms of implementation of fire safety measures.

"Some of the major markets such as ultadanga Telengabagan bazar, Sreemani market, Hatibagan market, Allen market, Sealdah Baithakkhana bazar are some of the major private markets visited by the KMC team after Surja Sen market blaze.

"These markets need an overhaul of fire safety measures. The owners will be asked to implement all fire-afety norms in phases. The owners will be asked to install firefighting equipment and train their security guards to handle the gadgets. We will arrange for such a training programme," said Tarak Singh, MMiC (markets). "The visit to the various markets is on and will be completed in a week," Singh added.

A senior market department official said that there are around 700 private markets across the city, apart from 46 municipal markets.

"It is really an uphill task for us to keep a tab on the all private markets. We are trying to zero in on some of the major private markets," said a KMC market department official.

NEW DELHI: A week after TOI highlighted the traffic chaos in west Delhi due to the slow pace of repairs at Janak Setu and the poor condition of other arterial roads, the South corporation opened the flyover for light vehicles and buses on Sunday. The corporation took the decision after taking permission from the project consultant, Central Building Research Institute (CBRI-Roorkee).

After the TOI report, PWD minister Rajkumar Chauhan called a meeting to discuss the progress of the project. A joint inspection was then carried out by South corporation and Public Works Department.

Residents of Janakpuri are happy with the opening of the flyover. "With this, people should not remain stuck in jams for hours, and the travel time between south and west Delhi should be reduced by half. They should have opened the flyover much earlier. Now, DDA and PWD can start the repair of Pankha Road,'' said Sanjay Puri, who has been pursuing the matter with the South corporation and PWD.

Corporation officials said CBRI had suggested some extra work for which the Delhi government is yet to give permission. "We have completed 90% of the work planned initially. CBRI had recommended extra work for which we had written to the government, asking for more funds. We are yet to hear from them," said Manish Gupta, South corporation commissioner.