Hyderabad: The Telangana Fire Services Act of 1999 mandates only the high rise buildings to take the No Objection Certificate from the fire department.
Most of the pubs in Hyderabad are either low rise building or inside a building complex.
Therefore, Telangana Fire department does not issue No Objection Certificate to bars and pubs in the state as it is not mandatory for them to apply according to the law.
The high-rise building means 18 metre for residential, 15 metre for commercial and 6 metre for places like schools, cinema hall, function halls, religious places.
Speaking to CNN News18, Rajiv Ratan, Director General of Telangana Disaster Response & Fire Services said, “Fire safety Act is for high rise buildings. Fire NOC is not given to individual business establishments functioning inside but to the building or entire structure. Pubs do not require fire NOC unless they exceed the minimum height criteria.”
“If the building doesn’t have fire NOC then the individual business house will not get occupancy certificate. But it is always good to be safe. We have been advising pubs to take precautions, like highlight exit signs, keep passage clear, not to block passage with extra tables, not to block staircase or other exits, etc.,” he added.
However, to ensure no untoward incident happens, the Fire Department keeps doing surprise inspection of the buildings to ensure fire safety norms are followed.
Also, the department does various awareness programs at the school level to create awareness about fire safety. Soon, the Telangana government plans to introduce a special chapter in schools on fire safety.
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