Small restaurants with seating capacity below 50 and PG accommodations with 10 or more rooms operating without a fire safety no-objection certificate (NOC) will now have to mandatorily apply for one, said officials. Prior to this, such establishments did not come under the mandatory fire NOC category.
The decision comes following suggestions of a sub-committee formed by the Delhi government in the aftermath of a fire at Hotel Arpit Palace in Karol Bagh in February 2019, which left 17 dead.
After judicial investigations in the matter, the Delhi government constituted the sub-committee to study and review the status of existing guest houses and restaurants/eating houses in Delhi, including various laws connected with fire safety and fire prevention, and to make appropriate recommendations for fire prevention and fire safety of guest houses and restaurant/eating houses in Delhi.
Officials said the committee was also asked to make recommendations for PG hostels/
accommodations. Joint surveys were conducted by the committee in areas of Hauz Khas, Paharganj, Hudson Lane, Mukherjee Nagar and Bhai Parmanand Colony.
The committee suggested that a fire safety certificate must be mandatory for private hostels in Delhi having 10 or more rooms irrespective of number of guests staying in the hostel, and the Delhi Fire Services may formulate fire safety standards for private hostels accordingly, said an official.
For eating houses having gross floor area less than 90 square metres or seating capacity below 50 persons, the committee suggested these structures should comply with minimum fire safety measures as per guidelines prescribed by the Delhi Fire Services. It also suggested that a fire safety certificate must be mandatory for restaurants operating in the same building and said that all civic bodies should mention the size of the eating houses on trade licences issued to them.
The committee had nine members from different departments under the chairmanship of Special Commissioner of Police Licensing and Transport Sanjay Singh and Atul Garg, Director/DFS, Professor B Bhattacharjee, IIT, PWD, restaurants and lodging house association among its members.
