KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation on Thursday issued a stop memo to the Oberon Mall authorities asking them to postpone the mall’s functioning temporarily. The corporation issued the memo after the Kerala High Court did not intervene in a petition filed by the mall authorities. However, the court asked the corporation to conduct an inspection at the mall along with the Fire and Rescue Services Department (FRSD) and take an appropriate decision by May 27.
Corporation authorities said they had received an application from the mall, where a major fire had broken out on May 16, seeking permission to resume its operations. It was rejected citing lack of effective fire safety mechanisms.
“We have a High Court directive to close down highrises lacking no-objection certificate from the FRSD. Following this, we issued the closure notice to the mall,” said Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain.
A probe following the mishap had revealed the mall was functioning without proper safety measures. The corporation issued the first stop memo to the mall saying it should remain closed till proper safety measures were implemented there. But the mall authorities ignored the memo and launched operations the other day.
Health Standing Committee Chairperson of the corporation V K Minimol said she got to know about the mall’s opening from media reports.
“The FRSD had issued a few guidelines on fire safety to the mall authorities to follow. However, they are yet to implement it. So we issued the closure notice,” she said.
Earlier, the FRSD wrote to Oberon Mall owner M A Mohammed asking him to improve the safety mechanisms inside the mall. They listed 10 instructions to strengthen safety mechanisms in the event of a fire outbreak. Repeated attempts to contact M A Mohammed proved futile as his mobile phone was ‘not reachable’.