Bazarghat building had no fire clearance

The building that caught fire in Bazarghat did not have a fire no-objection certificate through inflammable materials were stored in it. It also did not have proper set backs, which could have hindered the operations to put out the fire.

The owner, Ramesh Jaiswal, had secured permission to build a two-storey building on the 339-square yard plot about two decades ago. He built two more floors later, and got it regularised in 2008, according to Krishna Moorthy, assistant city planner of the area. Krishna Moorthy said.

Though the GHMC’s Directorate of Enforcement Vigilance & Disaster Management (EV&DM) has made it mandatory for all commercial establishments to have fire mitigation / safety



certificate, fire safety equipment and a no-objection certificate (NOC), but no such certificate was obtained by Jaiswal.

Since the building permit was issued around two decades ago, its data was not available in the Development Permission Management System (DPMS) portal, an official of the GHMC town planning department said.

GHMC Chief City Planner (CCP) M. Rajendra Prasad Nayak, hours after the incident, said he was yet to get the building details,

A GHMC Town Planning wing official said the building could not be categorised as commercial. They said that material was being stored but business was not being operated from that building.