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Levana Suites was running sans valid power connection NoC since 2020
The validity of the NoC lapsed in August 2020, after which the owner/management did not apply for its renewal, which was mandatory every three years
LUCKNOW Levana Suites, where four people died in a major fire on Monday morning due to an electrical short circuit, did not hold a valid NoC with regard to the electrical installations in the hotel.
The validity of the NoC for the hotel’s power connection lapsed in August 2020, after which the owner/management did not apply for its renewal, which was mandatory every three years. Meanwhile, the department concerned also did not carry out a periodic inspection of the hotel premises.
Officials of the electrical safety department are mandated to inspect a premise and safety of electrical installations each time before they renew the NoC or reject the application for renewal, as the case may be.
Applications for NoC renewal in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) are posted online.
“As per records available with us, the NoC for the power connection and electrical installations in Levana Suites was given in August 2017, when the power connection was issued to it. And going by the fact that the NoC for a commercial power connection needs to be renewed every three years, the NoC in this case should have been renewed in August 2020, which was not done,” said Anupam Shukla, director, electrical safety.
“The department has no record that can show that the hotel owner ever applied for the NoC after its validity expired,” he added.
He said divisional commissioner Roshan Jacob ordered a probe in this connection and the department would take action on the basis of the findings.
The directorate of electrical safety, which works under the energy department of the state government, is mandated under Rule 46 of the Indian Electricity Rules, 1956 to carry out initial as well as periodical inspections of all industrial, commercial complexes, multi-storey residential/government buildings and issue a no-objection certificate (NoC) for the power connection or renew it accordingly, declaring a building ‘safe’.
Deputy director, electrical safety (Lucknow zone) Gyanendra Singh also said that the hotel owner never applied for the renewal of the NoC after three years of getting the power connection. “The NoC needed to be renewed in August 2020,” he said.
The official also said that the periodic inspection to check if all the electrical safety norms were in place at the hotel was also not done by the department.
Singh pointed out that discouraging the ‘Inspector Raj’ in the state, the then Kalyan Singh government in October 1998 made a rule that inspections of commercial and industrial establishments by an official could be made only after obtaining prior permission from his senior. “In this case, I am not sure whether my predecessors tried to seek prior permission for the periodic inspection or not,” he added.
It is believed that if the periodic inspection of the hotel was made on time, the hotel would have been caught running on an invalid NoC and corrective action might have averted the tragedy.
Shukla said he would soon hold a meeting with owners/managers of hotels, cinema halls, malls, government and other buildings to emphasise on the need for keeping their electrical installations safe and hold valid NoC for the same.
“We will also strengthen the system of periodic inspection of old power connections and also ensure that notices are issued as reminders to those establishments/ buildings that fail to apply for renewal of NoC for electricity connection,” he added.
