KMC goes soft on rooftop restos, to allow more time for fire measures

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) buildings department has decided to soften its stance on the closure of rooftop restaurants that failed to upgrade the mandatory fire safety norms within a specified time frame. Adopting a ‘go-slow' policy on the closure issue, the civic bosses decided to allot the errant restaurants more time to upgrade the fire safety measures before taking the final call on asking them to down shutters.Earlier, the civic bosses had decided to issue closure notices and send them to the owners of rooftop restaurants that did not upgrade the fire safety norms. Now, with several rooftop restaurant owners keeping their establishments shut due to infrastructure issues not allowing for fire-safety upgrade, the KMC buildings department has been asked to "go slow". The civic body will adopt a wait-and-watch policy, giving ample scope to the errant restaurants to keep themselves operational.
A joint team comprising the state fire services department, KMC, and cops assigned to conduct a surprise drive at the city's rooftop restaurants found several anomalies in Dec. The team said restaurant owners needed to rectify these anomalies if they wanted to keep their establishments open. A 10-day drive that began on Dec 9 took note of the existing fire safety measures at these restaurants and compared them to the mandatory fire safety measures. The comparison revealed that several rooftop restaurants were yet to upgrade to the mandatory fire safety measures.A KMC buildings department source said that, barring a few rooftop restaurants in the Chowringhee-Camac Street-Theatre Road belt and some in the Gariahat-Ballygunge belt, the majority of the 83 restaurants surveyed were yet to reach the fire safety standard needed to run these establishments. "While we found around a couple of dozen restaurants had undertaken upgrades of the mandatory fire safety measures, others lagged behind. What's worse, some owners decided not to reopen at all," said a KMC buildings department official.Upgraded fire safety norms were laid down by a special task force before Durga Puja as a pre-condition for the owners of rooftop restaurants to reopen their establishments. Among the mandatory measures, restaurant owners will have to keep 50% of the terrace space free to be used as a fire refuge, the shades shall not be made of inflammable materials, there cannot be cooking on open fire on the roof, and no gas cylinder can be stocked on the rooftop. The stairs leading to the terraces should also be free of clutter for easy access in an emergency.According to a KMC official, most rooftop restaurants were caught off guard during the inspection. "While we found upgrade work in some restaurants satisfactory, some were still engaged in the upgrade work. So, we decided to give them some more time. While we appreciate the steps already taken by some restaurants, others who did not take enough initiative are being warned," the civic official said.