The Hindu 18.03.2010
Shot in the arm for FPW of GHMC
V.Geetanath
HYDERABAD: The hitherto toothless Fire Prevention Wing (FPW) of GHMC received a shot in the arm when powers to screen all buildings of less than 15 metres height were issued to it, a few days ago.
This will effectively mean it will no longer be necessary to obtain ‘no objection certificate’ from the A.P. State Disaster Response and Fire Services for such structures.
Director General Aruna Bahuguna issued orders delegating powers to FPWs of Municipal Corporations of Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Warangal to scrutinise plans, to conduct inspections and periodic safety audit of hazardous premises to ensure they are fire safety compliant under the National Building Code.
Hereafter, the parent department or DG’s office need to be approached only in the case of commercial buildings above 15 metres height and residential buildings of 18 metres and above. The rest of the buildings including schools, clinics, hospitals, malls, godowns, theatres, mutliplexes, etc., of five floors or less, can get their fire safety clearance along with their building plans.
Already, FPW’s Additional Director K. Jayaram Naik has started attending the weekly building committee meetings where all issues related to the building plan submitted for clearance, including fire safety, are discussed. These powers have come more than six months after FPW came into being for expediting release of building plans.
Red tape
Earlier, the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department had requested the Home Department to delegate such powers to the big municipal corporations to cut red tape and reduce time for releasing building plans as any structure of 15 metres and above had to be circulated to the DG’s office also for vetting fire safety norms.
Meanwhile, recent fire mishaps and subsequent inspections taken up by the FPW seems to have had an impact as fire safety norms compliance has shown some improvement at least with respect to the fire fighting equipment in the 50-bed hospitals.
In the third stage of inspections, 48 of the 78 hospitals had installed such equipment, 17 had an approach road but open spaces and external staircase were absent. About 141 inspections were conducted last week and 63 case reports were under preparation, said Mr. Naik.
Inspections are also being carried out on 410 shops, 196 hotels, 131 bars and 96 function halls in some busy roads of Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Sanatnagar, Mehdipatnam, Masab Tank, Lakdikapul, Khairatabad, L.B. Nagar, Tarnaka, Habsiguda, Kukatpally, Trimulgherry, etc.
