The West Bengal government has introduced online fire licence in a move to increase ease of doing business and significantly reduce the time taken to grant it to industrial units. “This will not only lower time for getting fire licences but will also remove the associated hassles and hardships for those setting up units here,” the states principal secretary to the department of fire and emergency services and environment, Arnab Roy said at the 11th Safety Symposium and Exposition organized by CII.
The state government, he said, is not only investing larger funds in fire prevention but is also trying to devise a mechanism which will ensure that a foolproof safety mechanism is in place and is periodically being checked. Complacency on safety was the “biggest enemy” and all stakeholders must guard against it. “Even if we cannot prevent accidents, we must try and make sure that the number of accidents is substantially reduced and the impact is minimized,” he said.
Roy said the state government has bought four hydraulic ladders, the tallest among them being 66 m high as more and more high-rises are coming up in the city. Andrew Page, the adviser to Tata Steel Managing Director, said he has observed a “refreshing change” in the safety culture in Kolkata, where people are becoming more safety compliant and adherence to safety rules appeared greater than ever before
