Telangana: Excise bats for strict fire-safety in bars

Hyderabad: Excise officials in the state are on a high alert following the recent fire mishaps in bars in Mumbai and Bengaluru. 

There are 936 bars in the state with nominal fire safety norms in place. Of this, 236 bars are located in the GHMC limit.

Except 14 bars in star hotels and prominent clubs and seven micro breweries in the city,  all bars are running from congested buildings and are located in multi-storied buildings without proper emergency exits. 

In some bars, managements use the staircase to store goods. 

In some bars, the staircase originates from kitchen. As per the excise norms, no fire safety certificate is required for permit bars. However, now the excise department wants to make it mandatory for them. 

Excise secretary and commissioner Somesh Kumar said, “All the bars have been directed not to block staircases or use them for other purposes. They were also asked to install fire extinguishers. Bars having carbon dioxide cylinders have been asked to replace them with powder cylinders.”

For setting up new bars, obtaining fire safety certificate will be made mandatory. 

As present, the excise department checks whether bars comply with the 100 metre distance norm, from educational institutions, temples and other religious places. 

Fire officials said that they were not issuing NOCs to bars as no one approaches them. They added that their role comes in only if bars are located in buildings with a height 15 metres and above.