VISAKHAPATNAM: Almost 85 percent of hospitals in Visakhapatnam do not have the Fire Department’s mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) as most fail to meet basic safety standards. King George Hospital (KGH), one of the biggest in north Andhra region, too does not have the certificate.
Officials TNIE spoke to said medical institutes often cut corners to reduce their expenditure, but the lax attitude could result in major hazards.
As per data with the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), out of the 196 private hospitals in the city, just 39 have NOC. The others either didn’t apply for the certificate or were disqualified due to poor safety practices followed. Not only private hospitals, several government hospitals too are in the dock.
As per guidelines of the Fire Department and National Building Code (NBC), every floor should have sprinklers, detectors, proper exit/entries. For a 500 sqm of floor, there should be emergency staircases, ramps, dedicated fire pumps etc. Most importantly, there should be an underground tank with a water capacity of about 50,000 litres and fire pumps of 1,620 litres/min flow.
Regional fire safety officer GVMC E Swamy told TNIE many private hospitals do not have underground tanks with fire pumps. “The tanks and fire pumps cost around `6 lakh to `7 lakh. Many hospitals are not procuring them to save a few bucks,” he said and added that notices had been sent to erring hospitals several times.
Fast facts
39 of 196 private hospitals have NOC.
Rest are dangerous and accident prone
As per guidelines every floor should have sprinklers, detectors, proper exit/entries 50,000 litresrequired capacity of underground tanks for 500 sq m floor size