KMC Crackdown On Hotels, Lodges
Kolkata: After closing down over 900 lodges and guest houses across the city’s 144 wards, the KMC will conduct suo motu hearings of owners who want to reopen their establishments after upgrading the fire safety norms. KMC launched a strict inspection of lodges, guest houses and hotels, checking for their compliance to fire safety and building norms, after a blaze at a crammed lodge inside Florence Mansions on Free School Street killed nine on Aug 19. The civic body has shut down 919 out of the 960 establishments it has so far inspected, according to the KMC administrator and municipal commissioner. The KMC team, along with fire officers, CESC officials and cops, will visit another 2,440 establishments over the next three weeks.
Gross violation of fire-safety norms was found on those premises, a civic official said. “We have decided to give the closed establishments a chance to reopen, provided the owners upgrade the fire safety norms and adhere to the KMC building rules,” said KMC administrator Smita Pandey, adding that no permission would be granted for reopening without compliance to fire safety norms. If the owners of closed hotels and guest houses don’t take a lesson from the tragic fire incidents and follow fire safety rules, we can’t allow them to reopen,” said a KMC official.
the civic brass has decided to do a rethink after some owners approached the KMC buildings department and promised to upgrade their fire safety measures and conform to the norms While the crackdown is underway. “We can’t play with fire.
Owners of small guest houses located around hospitals and healthcare centres might be considered for reopening if they upgraded their fire safety arrangements, according to a civic official. But they need to change the current firefighting arrangements at these guest houses,” said a KMC official. “We know for sure that relatives of patients, admitted to a cancer hospital in the Thakurpukur area, are in a difficult situation as guest houses around the facility have been shut for violations. We should consider such cases if the owners come forward and apply for reopening.