Bill on fire clearance for Kolkata highrises passed in West Bengal assembly

A bill was passed in the West Bengal assembly on Friday that sought to bring parity in the fire clearance norms for highrises in Kolkata.The West Bengal Fire Services Amendment Bill was passed by voice vote with the opposition BJP abstaining.A NOC no objection certificate of the Fire Department was earlier needed for buildings over 14.5 metres in height.

A bill was passed in the West Bengal assembly on Friday that sought to bring parity in the fire clearance norms for highrises in Kolkata.

The West Bengal Fire Services (Amendment) Bill was passed by voice vote with the opposition BJP abstaining.

''A NOC (no objection certificate) of the Fire Department was earlier needed for buildings over 14.5 metres in height. That limit is being raised to 15.5 metre with this new bill,'' Minister of State for Fire and Emergency Services Sujit Bose said.

This relaxation will be applicable to only Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) area.

The change was made to bring parity with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Building) Rules 2009 on the minimum height of a building required for being treated as a high rise, as per the Bill.

The Fire Department along with KMC took the decision of raising the limit after consultations with experts, Bose said.

Speaking to reporters at the assembly premises, he said 1,464 buildings in Kolkata, mostly commercial ones, were found to be dangerous in a preliminary survey done by his department.

A task force, comprising personnel of the Fire Department, KMC and power utility CESC, has already audited 568 of these 1,464 unsafe buildings. The rest of the buildings will be audited soon, he said.

BJP chief whip Manoj Tigga told PTI, ''This government believes in bulldozing the bills with no time to place the views of the opposition. Hence we sat quietly as the speaker asked for the voice vote.'' ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui said he also did not take part in the voice vote. Two MLAs each of the TMC and BJP took part in the discussions on the Bill ahead of the voice vote.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)