Mantralaya fire: a year on, inspection plans stuck in limbo

Almost a year after the civic heritage committee was supposed to ensure that heritage structures in the city undergo a fire safety audit, the plan is yet to get anywhere. The plan was announced in June last year, in the wake of the massive fire that engulfed Mantralaya. Reetika Subramanian reports.

Almost a year after the civic heritage committee was supposed to ensure that heritage structures in the city undergo a fire safety audit, the plan is yet to get anywhere. The plan was announced in June last year, in the wake of the massive fire that engulfed Mantralaya.

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However, over the last 11 months, fire brigade officials said that only one inspection has been conducted at Old Customs House, out of 75 heritage structures with high footfall or housing important documents in the city.

While civic officials said the Mumbai fire brigade is yet to file any report of inspections despite requests, fire officials said they had not received directions from the civic heritage panel.

“Last year, we had appointed a sub-committee to look at the fire preparedness of heritage structures to function in conjunction with the Mumbai fire brigade. However, we haven’t got reports on audits that we had requested to be conducted from the fire brigade,” said V Ranganathan, chairman of Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC).