The capital of India with its ever-increasing population in far-flung colonies & crowded localities and unplanned growth has always been a city with heavy fire risk. The risk has now been further increased with the expansion of industries and construction of high-rise buildings in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Many of the high-rise buildings in the Delhi have not yet been provided with inbuilt fire fighting arrangements, which are considered to be very essential from fire safety point of view. To ensure safety of such buildings and their occupants, the Building Bye-laws were adopted and duly notified by the Delhi Administration of 23rd June 1983. The Building Bye-laws are further being up-dated.
The Delhi Fire Prevention and Fire Safety Act, 1986 has already been notified by the Government of India in a Gazattee on 12th December, 1986 and rules framed there under are in force from 2nd March, 1987.
There were about 220 multi-storeyed buildings, which were initially identified as the buildings not having the required fire safety requirements as required under Building Bye-laws. With the strenuous effort of Delhi Fire Service the number has been reduced from 220 to 86. Now only 86 buildings are yet to comply with the recommendations. Out of these buildings 29 are Govt. buildings and 57 are private buildings.
The Delhi Fire Service issues fire safety guidelines to the various agencies for which the cases are to be referred to Chief Fire Officer, Delhi Fire Service through the building authorities concerned or licensing authorities in line with the bldg. by laws/relevant code of practices.
In case of high-rise buildings i.e. 15 meter or more in height a questionnaire has to be filled & submitted by the architect along with the plans. In order to avoid inconvenience all the information required in the questionnaire should be properly indicated. The fire safety guidelines are generally issued within two weeks from the date of receipt of request if the relevant information is correctly provided. The public is also advised to submit 3 sets of plans along with the duly filled in questionnaire and the building model.
The fire prevention wing is headed by a Deputy Chief Fire Officer and assisted by a Divisional Officer and Station Officers.
Once the guidelines have been issued by the fire department the application for obtaining no objection certificate may be submitted to the Chief Fire Officer by the builder/owner of the premises.
The owners/builders are further advised to ensure the compliance of all the fire safety guidelines before the approach the Chief Fire Officer for No Objection Certificate. No inspection fee is levied by the fire service for such inspection or issue of NOCs. In case of any difficulty the matter should be reported to the Dy. Chief Fire Officer or the Chief Fire Officer. The Chief Fire Officer or Dy. Chief Fire Officer may also be contacted in case there is a delay in carrying out the inspection or issue of fire safety guidelines, or issue of NOC after the inspection has been carried out etc.
The department does not levy any charges for this job for the time being.