At least 25 Delhi Metro stations flouted fire safety norms for periods ranging from one month to two years over the past five years. This includes high traffic stations like HUDA City Centre, Nehru Place, Dhaula Kuan, Okhla, Tilak Nagar, Moolchand and Kailash Colony. Information accessed through RTI shows that some like Vaishali station on Line 4 and Kirti Nagar on Line 5 do not have a fire no-objection certificate even now.
The information was given by DMRC to Gurgaon-based IT manager Sudhir Yadav. DMRC has admitted that it failed to get a fire NOC for 32 stations. Some lapses were only for a few days. However, amongst those stations that did not get a fire NOC for a significantly long period of time, is included Tilak Nagar which did not have fire clearance from 2014 till February this year.
HUDA city centre did not have a fire NOC for a year between May 2011 and May 2012 and then again for two years between February 2014 and January 2016 indicating a casual attitude towards safety standards. Some stations like Tughlaqabad did not have a fire NOC for 21 months, Sivaji stadium did not have clearances for 16 months while others like Kailash Colony, Okhla and Nehru Place had no fire checks for 15 months between 2013-2014. Lajpat Nagar, Moolchand stations went unaccounted for a year, while New Delhi station on the airport line did not have a fire NOC for 10 months.
