Gurugram: Five days after five people were killed and 11 others critically injured in multiple explosions that occurred after a fire broke out at a factory manufacturing fire extinguisher balls in Daulatabad industrial area, the fire department has found that only 28 such units have been granted the mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) for fire safety, officials said on Wednesday.
The revelation has raised serious concerns about fire safety standards in the industrial belts of Daulatabad, Kadipur, and Basai. Fire officials have pointed out that despite numerous visits and warnings, several industries have not applied for the NOC. This negligence puts both the workforce and the surrounding areas at risk, they said.
According to fire department officials, many of these industries are operating without an approved building plan, which is a prerequisite for obtaining the fire NOC.
Daulatabad industrial area spread across six acres of land has nearly 400 industries.
Without a fire-safety NOC, factory owners can’t get their building plans approved. If an incident of fire takes place in an area, then the company is held responsible, officials added.
Gulshan Kalra, deputy director (technical), Haryana fire services, who also holds the charge of deputy director (technical) of the fire station at Sector 29, said that only 28 industries have been granted fire NOC and the rest are operating without it. “A majority of them do not have a building approval plan and they cannot apply for a fire safety NOC unless they have it ready,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Gulshan Kalra, deputy director (technical), Haryana fire services, who also holds the charge of deputy director (technical) of the fire station at Sector 29, said that only 28 industries have been granted fire NOC and the rest are operating without it. “A majority of them do not have a building approval plan and they cannot apply for a fire safety NOC unless they have it ready,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Caught in the bureaucratic maze, industrialists are now finding it difficult to convince the fire department that their plots are located outside the R-Zone (residential zone).
Members of the industrial association of Daulatabad alleged that despite approaching all the concerned departments and the chief minister, nothing has been done yet to sort out the issue.
In July 2021, former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had directed the department of town and country planning (DTCP) to identify industrial areas and residential areas in the development plan of the Daulatabad industrial area after the members requested him to look into the issue.
Pawan Kumar Jindal, the president of the area’s industrial association, said there are 350 industrial units in the area that have been operating since 1962. “Till 2016, industrial building plans were being approved by the city council and MCG. After that, MCG stopped giving approval after the government declared it an R Zone. There are three reasons that NOCs could not be applied for. Firstly, one needs to have a plot of land of at least 500 square yards to apply for a fire NOC, here plots are mostly below 450 square yards. The building plan is not approved which is mandatory and thirdly despite paying property taxes, the MCG is not giving an NOC,” he said.
Officials said that the area was put under the residential zone in the development plan of 1994 and only the urban local bodies department can give approval in residential areas, due to which the approval was halted.
The fire officials said they are not aware of these technicalities and will consider the NOC applications only if they are supplied with documentary proof mentioning that a particular unit lies outside the R- zone. “The industrialists can attach documents with their NOC applications,” said Kalra.