Hotel fire aftermath: Immediate closure of all rooftop restaurants in Kolkata ordered

Kolkata, May 2 (IANS) Amid the devastating fire at a hotel at Madan Mohan Burman Street in central Kolkata on Tuesday night, which killed a total of 15 people, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Friday ordered the immediate closure of all the rooftop eateries in the city including restaurants, bars, and bar-cum-restaurants in the city.

Announcing this decision on Friday, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim also gave clarifications for what prompted the corporation to take such a decision.

“The roof of any building is a common area. Like the ground floors, the roofs of the buildings cannot be sold or used for business purposes,” Hakim explained.

He also said that a notification has already been issued for immediate closure of the rooftop eateries.

“We have to ensure that in case of any fire in any building, the people trapped inside the building can take shelter on the roof. All matters are not under the jurisdiction of KMC. But wherever we have a role to play, we will be doing the needful,” the Mayor clarified.

He said that roofs are the last shelter for the people trapped in buildings under fire in case the emergency exits of those buildings either do not exist or are non-functional for certain reasons. “We want to keep the options for that last shelter open and hence we have issued the order for immediate closure of all rooftop eateries,” Hakim said.

He also said that the borough-wise survey throughout the area under Kolkata Municipal Corporation will be conducted to find out the exact number of rooftop eateries that are being run.

Initial investigation has revealed that there were security lapses at the hotel building where the fire broke out on Tuesday night. Besides, lapses related to fire safety management, there were other major lapses in ensuring proper emergency evacuation arrangements and ventilation facilities at the hotel, as a result of which the majority of those killed in the fire died not because of getting charred but because of suffocation caused by the smoke emitting out of the fire.

The local people alleged that despite several complaints of illegal construction on the hotel raised in the past, neither the Kolkata Municipal Corporation nor the local police took any action to prevent the untoward incident.

--IANS

src/pgh