Hyderabad: After penalising food joints, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has begun a special drive on bars and pubs to verify and impose fines if the fire safety measures were not as per the parameters set by the civic body.
The corporation officials have asked the owners of bars, restaurants and pubs to set up the fire safety measures in accordance with the guidelines issued and said that it would seal all establishments if they had not applied for the requisite certifications.
The corporation has issued notices for eight bars in the city and sealed one for not applying for the fire safety certificate. The corporation seized Durga Restaurant and Bar in Sri Nagar Colony for not obtaining a fire safety certificate from the corporation. Officials claimed that seven others had immediately applied for certification after receiving the corporation's notice.
Mr Viswajit Kampati, Director of Enforcement, Vigilance & Disaster Management on Wednesday held a meeting with owners of commercial establishments and gave them shortfall notices and one-month 's time to rectify the fire safety systems as per the prescribed norms. He said that the drive would continue for one month and the corporation would seal all erring establishments after giving a three-day notice.
Mr Kampati said that the corporation has so far received over 600 applications. Shortfall notices had been issued to most of the bars, pubs and restaurants in the city. He also warned that the corporation would seal all establishments after the one-month notice period.
As per norms, depending on the establishment's capa-city, they are supposed to install different fire safety equipment. Emphasis shou-ld be laid on making sure the staircase is free, facilitating free movement of occupants in case of any emergency. This apart, there should be fire extinguishers, water sprinklers, etc.
After making a physical inspection and scrutinising the submitted data, managements will be asked to upgrade or install fire safety equipment.
