india

Updated: May 25, 2019 22:46 IST

A day after 22 persons, mostly teenaged students, were killed in a fire at a coaching centre in Surat, Gujarat, officials on Saturday said a majority of such centres in Jaipur and Kota lacked emergency exits, fire alarms, smoke detectors and fire hydrants.

Jaipur chief fire officer Jagdish Phulwaria said the Jaipur Municipal Corporation had conducted a safety audit of such coaching institutes in 2018, of which 100 were issued notices for flouting fire safety norms. Around 50 institutes, he said, were found to be legal of which 10 were given No Objection Certificates by the fire department.

“A coaching center is counted as a commercial complex, and as per the rules, there must be a minimum of two fire exits,” Phulwaria said. The problem is that many of these coaching centers run illegally in either a basement or a small room,” he said.

Nisha Shekhawat, manager of the one such coaching institute near the Gopalpura Bypass in Jaipur said the there is only one exit at the centre and classes are held in the basement. “We have just opened the center and are still equipping it with safety equipment,” Shekhawat said.

In Kota, according to a fire safety audit of 605-high rise building conducted in March this year, about 90% of buildings, institutes and hostels lacked fire safety equipment or were equipped with malfunctioning fire safety systems, said Kota chief fire officer Gautam Lal. “Every high rise taller than 15 meters must have proper fire safety arrangements,” Lal said.

President of the Kota Hostel Association Naveen Mittal said in older buildings, there is no awareness of fire safety among hostel owners. “All hostels have portable fire extinguishers, while newly-constructed ones have fire safety systems installed,” he said.