The local municipal corporation (MC) is drafting a dedicated Fire Safety Act for Chandigarh to simplify the process of obtaining fire safety certificates in the Union Territory, addressing significant implementation challenges posed by the city’s numerous heritage structures.
At present, the Delhi Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act, 1986, is applicable in Chandigarh which mandates fire safety certificates (FSC) for buildings above 15 metre in height (high-rises). Besides, the states and union territories of India also implement the fire safety rules, as recommended by the National Building Code (NBC).
The NBC is a comprehensive document that covers detailed guidelines for construction, maintenance and fire safety of the structures. The NBC has also made fire safety certificates mandatory for residential buildings where over 20 people stay.
In low-occupancy categories, the buildings that need FSC include assembly, institutional, educational (more than two storeyed and built-up area exceeding 1,000 sqare metre), as well as hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, underground complexes, industrial storages, meeting/banquet halls and hazardous occupancies.
To obtain the No Objection Certificate (NOC), the NBC mandates fire extinguishers on all floors, automated sprinkler system, escape routes sans obstruction, natural ventilation and lighting, and furniture with flame-resistant material.
There are around 420 high rise buildings in Chandigarh but most of them are heritage structures, including buildings in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Panjab University (PU), UT secretariat, police headquarters and others. The buildings are presently running without fire safety certificates, posing a risk of life for thousands of people, as the heritage structures cannot be altered, demolished, or extensively renovated to meet the NBC guidelines.
Naveen Manglani, vice-president, Chamber of Chandigarh Industries said: “The National Building Code is a document that contains recommendations, but the fire safety rules are very rigid. It becomes difficult for industries and old buildings to install the required fire safety equipment and comply with those norms. For example, an industrialist was given a notice to install a water tanker above the building with 20,000 litres of capacity but even the architect said that building can’t hold that weight.”
Similarly, the PGI’s Nehru Hospital, and other heritage buildings, can’t make new exit routes or ramps now or make new tankers and hence, can never get the NOC.
“Chandigarh is a unique city with many heritage buildings. A city specific fire code is therefore imperative as certain current fire safety provisions are very hard to fulfil, which leads to non-compliance or even in cases corruption, as people try to ensure procedural conformity at all costs,” said advocate and city councillor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu.
MC joint commissioner and chief fire officer Isha Kamboj said: “The current regulations are impractical for heritage buildings, which are not suited to accommodate the prescribed fire safety modifications. Due to this, the buildings, even when they wish to, are not able to comply with the rules and get the NOC. Hence, we wish to make Chandigarh’s own Fire Safety Act to make it easier for people to get NOCs. There are plans to reduce the ‘15 metre height’ component in the new Act and relax NOC norms so that it makes it mandatory and easier for other buildings to get the NOCs to ensure that public safety is not compromised.”
