Hotels and guest house owners worried about fire clearance

The Delhi Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association (DHROA) met state urban development Satyendar Jain last month to request him to extend by a year the deadline for the implementation of the new norms that are currently under review.

Two months after they were allowed to reopen their businesses, owners of hotels and guest houses in the national capital are a worried lot. While their businesses were already badly hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a lack of clarity about new fire safety norms, notified by the Delhi government in May last year, have compounded their concerns.

The government had notified the new fire safety norms in May last year, after a fire in Arpit Palace hotel killed 17. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT photo)

The Delhi Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association (DHROA) met state urban development Satyendar Jain last month to request him to extend by a year the deadline for the implementation of the new norms that are currently under review. The existing deadline was March 31, 2020.

The Delhi government had notified the new fire safety norms in May, three months after a fire in Karol Bagh’s Arpit Palace hotel claimed 17 lives.

But following objections raised by hotel and guest house owners, the Delhi government had in November last year constituted a sub-committee chaired by a special commissioner of police (licensing) to review and make appropriate recommendations for fire safety in these institutions. The owners were given time till March 31 this year to comply with the new norms.

Mohit Shah, general secretary, DHROA, said, “There is no clarity on what the status of the new fire safety norms is. We are in a Catch-22 situation. Our establishments have clearance from the fire department as per the old norms. We don’t know if we should carry out changes as per the new norms or not, as there is no clarity about the new norms. We want the deadline to be extended till March 31, 2021 so that we can run our businesses without any fear.”

However, this committee is yet to submit its report, a senior government official said. A senior Delhi Police officer with the licensing department said, “The report is almost final and is expected to be submitted in the coming week.”

When contacted, Jain said, “We will extend the time for compliance due to the Covid-19 situation.”

Hotel owners said they want the deadline to be extended at the earliest.

Murli Mani, owner of a hotel in Karol Bagh and DHROA chairman, said, “The business is badly hit due to Covid. We are operating the business in fear due to a lack of clarity about the fire norms. In case there is a fire incident, will the existing fire NOC [no-objection certificate] be considered valid? The fire department is also not renewing expired NOCs. What will happen to those people? ”

A senior Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official, who asked not to be named, said, “Those who have not complied with the changes notified in May 2019, do not technically have a valid NOC. As the deadline for implementation has not been extended and the amendment to the new rules not notified, the rules that were notified in May are in force.”

As per the new amendments, kitchen or cooking activity in any form is not allowed on rooftops or basements of buildings, and storage of inflammable materials or temporary roofing is banned in terraces.

Besides, inflammable materials — like carpets and wooden or foam panellings — are not allowed on passages, corridors and staircases of buildings, and storage of gas cylinders in violation of standards prescribed by the National Building Code is also banned.

The hotel owners had raised objections to a few provisions in the amendment, such as installation of Carbon monoxide detectors and fire check or protection doors, and no fire NoCs to hotels with more than four floors. “We had objected to installation of fire check doors in guesthouses and suggested that sprinklers be allowed. There were other issues which we had raised. We want our fire NOC to be considered valid till next year. The government should notify the new norms at the earliest,” said Boddy Lohia, president of Mahipalpur hotel owners’ association.

Former DFS chief AK Sharma said that the government should notify the new norms so that hotel owners can comply with it. “The government should take cognisance and extend the deadline for implementation. Now that the deadline for implementation has not been extended so far, the new rules notified in May are currently in force. But hotel owners can’t be held responsible as the government is yet to notify the final norms.”