In light of Kamala mills fire, municipal commissioner, has instructed BMC’s IT department to make available the service on priority basis.

Existing restaurants, eateries, bars and pubs will be able to renew their fire no-objection certificates (NOCs) online as per the new requirements codified by the chief fire officer (CFO), by end of this week.

In light of Kamala mills fire in December 2017, municipal commissioner, Ajoy Mehta, has instructed Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) information technology (IT) department to make available the service online by Thursday, on priority basis. Fire NOCs will be renewed while applying for renewal of health licence online.

In effect, the IT cell is now developing a software that will become a part of online health licensing system, and will take into account requirements for each establishment as per CFO-codified requirements.

While list of fire safety requirements for each type of establishment has already been published on BMC’s website, the entire list does not apply to existing establishments.

BMC has come up with a clause called ‘imminent danger’ for existing establishments. If any existing restaurant or bar that had obtained a fire NOC when it was set up as per fire safety norms of the time, cannot fulfil all requirements, BMC will allow it to implement most pertinent ones, as long as the establishment does not face ‘imminent danger’ of fire.

An official associated with the process said, “We need to develop a specialised software and take into account the clause of ‘imminent danger’ present in codified requirements. We are creating a specialised drop-down menu with a checklist of requirements which an establishment can meet.”

As developing this software has taken priority, the IT department has put 90 other BMC services on the back-burner.