BHUBANESWAR: Pantaloons and Forum Mart Big Bazaar, two of biggest shopping malls in the Capital, are found to have grossly inadequate fire safety systems.
The Directorate General of Fire Services which had inspected shopping establishments last week, served notices to 10 malls on Tuesday. Of those, fire safety measures installed at Pantaloons and Big Bazaar were found to be most deficient. While 28 deficiencies in the fire prevention and safety measures have been pointed put in Big Bazaar at Kharavel Nagar, the Pantaloons’ mall at Saheed Nagar has been asked to take measures for 20 shortcomings which Fire Services officials had detected during the inspection, said DG Fire Services, Home Guards and Civil Defence Bijay Kumar Sharma.
All the 10 shopping malls have been asked to comply with the deficiencies within two months or face action.
The assessment of prevention measures at Big Bazaar, Kharavel Nagar revealed that the two driveways remain obstructed and it has been directed to maintain nine metre open space in the front and on both the sides. Two LPG cylinders were found stored close to basement vents which have to be shifted.
Similarly, three common staircases connecting all the floors have a width of less than 1.5 metres which need to be enhanced. The Fire Service officials also called for installation of automatic smoke detectors above false ceiling wherever void space is more than 800 mm.
Big Bazaar has also been asked to install one diesel pump of 2280 litres per minute (LPM) and a jockey pump of 180 LPM by replacing the defective ones.
It has been instructed to make provision for a 20,000 litre terrace tank exclusively for fire fighting operations. The mall has also been directed to install another 99 fire extinguishers at conspicuous positions. A part of the basement used as incidental storage should be cleared, the Fire Services officials pointed put.
At Pantaloons, the terrace tank of 10,000 litre has not been connected to the wet riser system while there is just one exit provided at ground floor. It has also been asked to install a 2,280 LPM capacity diesel pump, operationalisation of automatic fire detection and alarm system.
There is no dedicated fire control room for which space must be created while standby power has to be provided in auto mode, the notice said.
The other malls which have been served notices include Maruti Mall of Big Bazaar at Nandankanan Road, Big Bazaar and V2 Shopping Mall, The World, Vishal Mega Mart, Nayapalli, BMC Bhawani Mall, Sahed Nagar, The World, Khandagiri and Pal Heights.
Safety lapses
Two driveways remain obstructed in Forum Mart Big Bazaar
Terrace tank of 10,000 litre has not been connected to the wet riser system in Pantaloons
All the 10 shopping malls have been asked to comply with the deficiencies within two months or face action