Urban Development and Housing Minister Bhupendra Singh has informed that new instructions have been issued superseding all the guidelines issued earlier regarding the Provisional No Objection Certificate to be issued by the fire authorities in connection with fire safety. The Commissioner Municipal Corporations for Municipal Corporations, Divisional Joint Director Urban Administration and Development for Municipality and Municipal Council, Collector for rural areas and Executive Officer for Cantonment area Jabalpur, Mhow, Murar, Pachmarhi and Sagar have been declared as fire fighting authority. Along with this, the Collector has been declared as the competent authority for the cases related to the urban area under the Explosives Act.
Mandatory fire safety provisions in buildings
All buildings above 15 meters in height, all buildings (excluding residential and religious and community buildings) with a built-up area of more than 500 square-metres on a single floor, any hotel/hospital having more than 50 beds will have to mandatorily obtain fire safety certificate in the National Building Code. Hospitals/hotels with less than fifty beds shall self-certify the registered fire engineer as per rules and submit the same to the competent authority at the time of license. After ensuring the arrangement according to the approved safety plan, after obtaining the electrical safety certificate issued under the rules of the Energy Department, a fire certificate will be issued for the building, whose duration will be 3 years. For pre-built buildings, the fire plan will be approved by the Fire Officer within one month of receipt of the application. Within the prescribed time period of 2 months, if the fire plan is not prepared by the building owner/building operator and is not presented to the fire authority, then penalty at the rate of Rs 500 per day will be payable for the delayed time and after one year at the rate of Rs 1000 per day.
Fee
Fee has been fixed for giving fire safety certificate. For residential and educational buildings, Rs 2,000 for the first 500 square meter built-up area and Rs 2 per square meter for the built-up area above 500 square meters will be charged. For other buildings, Rs 5,000 will be charged for the first 500 square meter built-up area and Rs 5 per square meter for the built-up area above 500 square meters. The fire audit report in the prescribed form has to be submitted to the fire authority by June 30 every financial year.
Renewal of Fire Safety Certificate
An application for renewal of the certificate has to be made 2 months before the expiry of the period of 3 years of the Fire Safety Certificate. Renewal can be done for the next 3 years. All the fire authorities in their jurisdiction, where the fire officer is not posted, will temporarily give the charge of the fire officer to a technical officer of the body itself, who will be able to inspect the building/site. Similarly, all fire authorities will be able to take the services of a qualified/licensed fire engineer to supervise fire related arrangements and provide technical guidance regarding certificates. If necessary, contract appointment can also be given. Monthly review of such buildings, whose fire audit report has been submitted, will be done by the Fire Officer. Surprise inspection of minimum 10 percent random cases will also be done.
