Hyderabad: The Happy Traders building, which caught fire, was a residential one and was being used as commercial godown. The shop did not have an NOC from the fire enforcement wing of GHMC. Nor was it equipped with a fire extinguisher.
GHMC district fire officer K. Krishna Kumar said, “Most of the fire NOCs are taken only by supermarkets, schools, malls, and big shops, which are below 15 metres, whereas the traditional markets either in Old City or in as Secunderabad, General Bazaar, Pot Market, Monda market, or Patel Market don’t have NOC from the fire department.” “There are thousands of shops that are very old in these traditional markets and it’s very difficult to keep track of each and every shop. For that, we need manpower. We need more staff to inspect all these shops and issue them the NOCs. Moreover, it’s difficult even for the enforcement wing to issue any statistics of the shops that don’t have NOC in these traditional markets because we have to check each and every shop, and it will take time.”
“However we are in the planning stage now to inspect all these shops which don’t have the NOCs. Once we have the data, we will issue orders for those who haven’t applied for the NOC. If they don’t comply with it after issuing orders they will be booked under the fire service act,” Mr Kumar noted.
According a fire official, “There are many shops below 15 metres and most of them are in these markets. The shop owners do take the trade licence but they aren’t bothered about taking the fire NOC. It’s the duty of GHMC fire wing to check these structures and issue them the NOC.”
Survey on fire NOC
- Survey to be done by GHMC from this month to know the number of shops.
- Fire department issues NOC to buildings above 15 metres in height.
- The owners will be booked under section 19 and 31 of fire service act if NOC is not taken.
