25 January,2022 08:02 AM IST | Mumbai | Prajakta Kasale
The need for fire audits became significant following the tragedy at Sachinam Heights. File pic
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The BMC has put on hold the audit of corporation-run hospitals, schools, etc., as the chief electrical inspector of the PWD will be carrying out the inspections of civic and private establishments. The civic body had planned to prepare the SOPs by January-end, following which they would have started the audits. Now, with the state department taking over, there is expected to be a slight delay.
The matter of fire audits has become significant once again, following the fatal tragedy at Sachinam Heights in Tardeo.
In January last year, a fire caused by a short circuit had claimed the lives of 10 newborns at Bhandara hospital. Thereafter, the BMC carried out fire audits of all civic-run hospitals and found loopholes in the fire fighting systems.
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The corporation started improving the fire prevention systems and decided to install smoke detectors and extractor systems at 16 civic hospitals.
Meanwhile, the BMC's Electrical and Mechanical Department in accordance with the Mumbai Fire Brigade's (MFB) rules started formulating a Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for electrical audits of civic-run structures. The SOPs were supposed to be completed by the end of January. However, now the civic body has to put it on hold, because the MFB has pushed for the audits at the state level.
"In hospitals, new machines and technology increase the load and affect the electricity distribution. It may happen in any structure where new equipment is added. So, electrical audits by a competent authority are necessary to prevent fires. There is a provision of electrical audits under Section 36 of the Central Electricity Authority (measures relating to Safety and Electric Supply) (Amendment) Regulations and are supposed to be implemented by the chief electrical inspector of the state by appointing chartered electrical safety engineers," said a BMC official.
Krishna Perekar, chief engineer of the Electrical and Mechanical Department, said, "We were working on the SOPs, but as the talks with the chief electrical inspector of the Public Works Department (PWD) is going on and the office has the consent to start it at their level, there is no need to create separate norms at the BMC level. So, for now, we held back the plan."
