Wedding venues in Mumbai to get umbrella safety rules

The rules are likely to save gymkhanas from harassment as well. File pic

Gymkhanas, schools and all other venues where celebrations and weddings are held regularly will soon have a new open-kitchen policy, which will include a uniform set of fire safety norms.

The decision to create this policy was taken after a recent spate of raids carried out at various gymkhanas irked their management and prompted them to approach the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demanding a set of standard norms. A group of around 15 members representing various gymkhanas including Otters Club, Bandra Gymkhana, Parsi Gymkhana, Wellington Gymkhana among others took their grievances to the additional municipal commissioner, Idzes Kundan on January 31. Confirming the development, Kundan said, "I have given directions to the chief fire officer to examine the existing norms and come up with a draft policy to have a more uniform sense of fire safety."

Cylinders at a distance
P Rahangdale, chief fire officer, said the draft of the policy has been prepared and sent to the health department. Highlighting one of its key aspects that is likely to be mandatory, Rahangdale said, "At events like weddings where cooking is done in the open, gas cylinders will have to be kept away from the cooking area. The cylinders should be connected to a hood (chimney) with an automatic suppression system," he said. He further explained that the chimney will be connected to the fire extinguisher so that in case of a fire, it can douse the flames.

The policy came about after representatives of several gymkhanas, including Parsi Gymkhana (pictured here), approached BMC. File pic

The rule will save gymkhanas from harassment, too. Cornel Gonsalves, joint secretary of Bandra Gymkhana referred to a raid that was carried out in their premises on January 25 by the fire department officials who later confiscated gas cylinders even though they had followed all the norms. "There is a sense of duplicity on the part of the fire department as far as fire safety norms are considered. We had asked for a new policy so that gymkhanas and other venues are not harassed," he said. The delegation of gymkhana management members was led by Congress corporator Asif Zakaria who insisted BMC should simplify the process and grant approval on a one-time basis so that the gymkhanas are not harassed for every event. "A policy is being made so that venue is more fire compliant as per the guidelines of the fire safety act and generates revenue for BMC as well. The open kitchen policy should be implemented at the earliest and approvals should be given online," he said.

Case-to-case inconvenience
Fire officials said that currently, there are no norms pertaining to cooking out in the open and permissions are granted on a case-to-case basis which is an inconvenience for management members of gymkhanas. "Since gymkhanas have to apply for each wedding separately, some of them don't apply for all of them or commit violations. Or in some instances, they apply for using 10 cylinders and use more that," said a fire department official. The fire department has carried out surprise inspection visits at various gymkhanas in the past couple of months. During several inspections, violations were found and gas cylinders were confiscated.

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