After Surat fire, Delhi government orders inspection of coaching centres

In the first phase of the exercise, Jain said, the fire department will inspect coaching centres’ buildings with more than 15 metres height, which is typically the height of a four-storey building, excluding the parking stilt.

The Delhi government on Monday ordered immediate inspection of all buildings housing coaching centres across the city. The order was issued in the wake of the recent fire incident at a coaching centre in Gujarat’s Surat that claimed more than 20 lives, Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain said.

The Delhi government on Monday ordered immediate inspection of all buildings housing coaching centres across the city. (HT File)

In the first phase of the exercise, Jain said, the fire department will inspect coaching centres’ buildings with more than 15 metres height, which is typically the height of a four-storey building, excluding the parking stilt. In the second phase, the focus will be on buildings less than 15 metres high, he said.

The areas in which multiple coaching centres are under the radar of officials from the fire department include south Delhi’s Lado Sarai and Kalu Sarai, north Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, central Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar and east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar, senior government officials said.

“Immediate action will be taken for closing down the operation of those coaching institutes, which are found to be violating fire safety norms,” Jain said.

On Sunday, the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) asked coaching institute owners across the city to provide latest buildings plans and made it mandatory to mention the number of students enrolled in each centre.

The fire department, along with the municipal corporations, will inspect over 5,000 coaching institutes in the city. Along with reviewing the permission, the officials will assess the “assembling capacity” of the buildings.