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Seminar on Fire Safety in Buildings of Delhi – A Step towards safer CitiesPress
Release
A
Seminar on “Fire Safety in Buildings of Delhi” was organised today on
the occasion of the beginning of the observance of the ‘Fire Safety
Week’ jointly by HUDCO, BMTPC and the Delhi Fire Services.
The Seminar was attended by over 100 professionals in the building
sector as well as local bodies and regulatory authorities. The Seminar was
inaugurated by Shri Jagmohan, Hon’ble Minister for Urban Development and
Poverty Alleviation. The Hon’ble Minister, during his inaugural address,
made a detailed presentation, highlighting the precarious status of
high-rise buildings and the major fire risks they are exposed to.
During his address, he specifically brought out the lackadaisical
approach towards proper maintenance and indicated his recent experiences
of maintenance of public buildings in the capital where the fire exits
remain blocked, fully exposed electrical wires hanging overhead, the
defunct fire extinguishers, etc. making the buildings and their occupants
vulnerable to major fire hazards. He
also brought out the major conflagration of slums in urban areas and the
inherent fire risks they are exposed to.
He urged all the stakeholders like civic authorities, engineers,
architects, builders and the professional community at large to join
together towards adoption of methods and mechanism in building
construction as well as maintenance so that out buildings are safe from
natural and man-made hazards. In
the Technical Session, four major presentations on various themes in Fire
Safety aspects were made. The
first presentation was made by Shri V. Suresh, CMD, HUDCO, on the theme of
‘Planning and Designing of Buildings and Services for Fire
Protection’. The
presentation brought out various design parameters that need to be adopted
for fire protection provisions incorporating fire safety and fire-fighting
inputs, especially the exit and egress requirements as per the relevant
codal provisions stipulated in the National Building Code. He also
stressed the need for Annual Renewal Certificates on the lines of
provisions in the Kolkata bye-laws. Shri
Suresh stressed the need for operationalization of techno-legal regime and
brought out the facilitatory role of the stakeholders in fire protection
and prevention. Shri
T. N. Gupta, Executive Director, BMTPC, made his presentation on the theme
of ‘Fire Hazard in Built Environment – Building Materials and
Construction Systems’. Shri Gupta brought out the fire rating mechanism
for different building materials. He
stressed the need for fire safety management and control of smoke
movement. He also recommended that manuals should be prepared for
performance of building materials in event of fire hazard. The
next presentation was on the theme of ‘Fire Safety Clauses in the
National Building Code – Opertaionalization the techno-legal regime’.
He highlighted the various requirements as per the building
bye-laws prevailing in Delhi, especially for multi-storeyed buildings.
He also emphasised that it was important to operationalise
enforcement of these bye-laws in order to shift the focus from
fire-fighting to prevention. The
Chief Fire Officer, Delhi Fire Service, Shri S. K. Dheri, made his
presentation on the theme of ‘Fire Protection – New Trends’. He brought out the magnitude of the problems in Delhi and the
role of the planners and builders in fire prevention. He presented the innovative technologies and equipment
available for fire prevention and fire fighting within the built
environment and urged the owners of the buildings in Delhi to incorporate
these appropriately to reduce vulnerability towards fire hazards. The
Seminar had detailed deliberations and active participation of all the
delegated and came up with a set of recommendations, which were presented
by Shri V. Suresh, CMD, HUDCO. The Seminar concluded on an optimistic note
of the increased public awareness towards fire safety and hoped that the
deliberations would be a step forward in contributing towards a safer
Delhi. |
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