Central district tops Delhi’s post-fire safety enforcement drive with 99 notices

Central Delhi leads in post-fire safety enforcement, with 99 notices served after a deadly June fire, highlighting ongoing safety violations in commercial buildings.

Central district has emerged as the focus of the Delhi government’s ongoing post-fire safety enforcement drive, recording the highest number of notices issued by both the revenue department’s sub-district committees and the Delhi Fire Services (DFS).

The drive was launched after a deadly fire at a bed-and-breakfast in south Delhi’s Hauz Rani on June 3 killed 23 people, including 13 foreign nationals. (HT Archive)

So far, sub-district committees have issued 573 notices across the Capital, while the DFS has served 413.

The drive was launched after a deadly fire at a bed-and-breakfast in south Delhi’s Hauz Rani on June 3 killed 23 people, including 13 foreign nationals. The B&B was operating 31 rooms against the permitted six and lacked a fire exit and adequate ventilation.

DFS data accessed by HT showed that between June 4 and June 30, sub-district committees issued 99 notices in Central district, while the DFS served 55 notices there following inspections. Among sub-district committee notices, South recorded the second-highest tally with 81, followed by West (72), North-East (59), South-West (51) and South-East (44). Among DFS notices, West ranked second with 66, followed by South (51), North-East (48) and South-West (46).

According to the Delhi government, the Capital has around 72,000 commercial buildings.

The remaining sub-district committee notices were issued in North and the South & South-East subdivision (33 each), North-West (29), East (23), New Delhi (20), Outer North (12), North-West subdivision (10), Central North (4) and the New and Old Delhi subdivision (3).

For DFS, the South & South-East subdivision recorded 32 notices, followed by North-West (25), East (23), South-East (18), North (15), Outer North (12), North-West subdivision (8), New Delhi (7), Central North (4) and the New and Old Delhi subdivision (3).

Officials aware of the matter said inspection teams visited hotels, guest houses, banquet halls, educational institutions and other commercial establishments, resulting in the notices.

The teams identified recurring violations, including the absence of emergency evacuation plans, failure to display emergency contact numbers, missing disaster management plans, non-functional fire alarm systems, faulty firefighting equipment, lifts operating without valid licences, exposed electrical wiring and an inadequate number of fire extinguishers.

To carry out the exercise, the Delhi government constituted 13 district-level committees and 39 subdivision-level committees to coordinate inspections across the Capital.