Pune civic body make fire NOC mandatory for hospitals

The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has made it mandatory for hospitals within its civic limits to function only after obtaining the fire no objection certificate (NOC).

The directive follows the recent fire tragedy at a private hospital in Kolkata that claimed 90 lives. The civic health department has also given instructions to the fire department. The civic administration had recently made it mandatory for petrol pumps and hotels to obtain the fire NOC.

PCMC chief medical officer, Dr Rajshekhar Iyer said, “The fire incident at Kolkata’s well-known Advanced Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI) hospital has once again raised the issue of public safety. There are nearly 400 small and medium hospitals in the twin township.

Hence, the administration has taken this important decision.” According to the fire officials, the staff, in the next ten days, will check whether the hospitals have installed and activated the fire system. After verifying the measures adopted by hospitals for public safety and providing necessary instructions during the spot visit, the fire NOC will granted.

During the last week, the civic administration had issued a circular to multi-specialty hospitals, malls and multiplexes to safeguard their fire systems. The health department had directed these public places to submit the maintenance certificate of their firefighting system every six months to the PCMC.