Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken up a massive awareness drive among different categories of stakeholders.
The awareness drive-cum sensitisation workshop started from October 11 and will continue till November 29.
During the period, slums, residential welfare associations in different wards, society representatives of highrise residential complexes, owners of industrial units, members of private and government health institutions, colleges, universities, malls, representatives of puja committees, markets and government and private offices will be involved in a phased manner to discuss fire safety compliance according to Odisha Development Authorities (Planning and Building Standards) Rules, 2020.
Ajay Mohanty, city project coordinator from Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), said the basic purpose of awareness workshop is to educate the different stakeholders regarding safety requirement and help them apply for fire safety compliances.
“We are involving the councillors because they can motivate people easily so as to make them install fire safety equipment and file compliance with the fire department. We are involving the ward officers as they stay in touch with residents routinely. We have planned to distribute self-declaration forms regarding fire safety compliances for residents to fill them up. The filled forms that will contain some basic queries, will be collected through ward officers. The BMC will send them to fire department so that they can issue necessary instructions to building owners to upgrade safety norms accordingly,” said Mohanty.
“With new hotels and apartments coming up very fast, the fire safety infrastructure and people’s sensitivity towards fulfilling the norms is of utmost importance. There is suggestions from different stakeholders to convert the city’s fire stations into multi-hazard units,” said BMC deputy commissioner Ramesh Jena.