NOIDA: The Gautam Budh Nagar fire department Friday sealed four coaching centres, which were in violation of safety guidelines, thereby putting the well-being of students who attend classes on these premises at risk.
The department sealed a coaching centre, FIITJEE Limited, an Institute for IIT-JEE preparation, in Sector 16, while three centres— Paramount Coaching, Gurukul, and Laureates Academy— were sealed in Nayabans village in Sector 15.
The fire department had issued show cause notices to these coaching institutes and given them 10 days to rectify any shortcomings in terms of fire safety. The notices were issued after inspections conducted in Noida in the wake of the Surat tragedy on May 24. Twenty-two students were killed and several others injured in a fire at a coaching centre in Sarthana area of Surat, Gujarat.
“After the Surat incident, we have issued notices to more than 50 coaching centres, where thousands of students take coaching classes for various competitive exams. We had given 10 days to these four institutes (that were sealed on Friday) to comply with fire safety norms but they did not do anything. Neither did these institutes file any reply to our notice. Therefore, we had to seal these centres as cannot take chances with the safety of students,” AK Singh, chief fire officer, fire department, Gautam Budh Nagar, said.
The mandated fire safety systems include sprinklers, setback area in the building, staircases for emergency evacuation and adequate parking facility, officials said. Officials say most coaching centres lack one or more of these facilities.
{{/usCountry}}The mandated fire safety systems include sprinklers, setback area in the building, staircases for emergency evacuation and adequate parking facility, officials said. Officials say most coaching centres lack one or more of these facilities.
{{/usCountry}}The spokesperson of FIIT JEE said, “The fire department has asked us to build water tanks, install sprinklers, demolish a top floor and make double staircases. It gave us six days but we have demanded a month’s time to file a compliance report. We hope that the fire department will give us that time. We will hold classes only after the fire department issues us a fire safety clearance.”
The three coaching institutes in Nayabans did not even have building’s occupancy certificate, officials said.
The fire department does not have any estimate of the exact number of coaching institutes in the district. The three coaching institutes in Nayabans were not available for comment.
“We do not have data of all coaching institutes in the district. But we are conducting random inspections at all institutes. We appeal to the general public that they may inform us about coaching centres, where fire safety systems are not in place and we will take prompt action,” Singh said.
Three coaching institutes were located in one building located in Nayabans, Sector 15, while one coaching occupied an entire building located in Sector 16. Students used to take engineering entrance test coaching in these centres.