CHENNAI: Shoppers thronging T Nagar, the commercial hub of Chennai, may have to be prepared to face more fire accidents because the state authorities, who promised safety norms and action against popular retailers in T Nagar with building and fire safety violations, are yet to take any action against the violators.
“It is almost a year since a major fire broke out at the Chennai Silks showroom in T Nagar, there still seems to be no considerable change as almost all the commercial establishments in the locality continue to flout the norms blatantly,” said S.Jayaraman, of the T Nagar Residents Welfare Association. The situation in Ranganathan Street and Usman road has not improved and the violators continue to do good business posing danger to the public who throng in large numbers, he added.
Interestingly the Madras High Court had also been briefed about the violators in T Nagar four years back, but no action taken till date. According to the fire safety report compiled by multi-storey inspection team in 2015, the flaws were identified and the defaulters were served notice, but nothing much had happened since then, insiders admitted. For instance, a famous retail chain in the city (which has already witnessed a fire accident) with over four branches in T Nagar does not comply with the safety norms. While they have only four 5 kg extinguishers at each floor, the department mandates two 9 litre extinguishers for every 200 sq metres in addition to 5kg extinguishers.
According to the report, they do not posses automatic sprinkler system, underground water tank as per required capacity (1.5 lakh ltrs), fire lift, a setback area, exit signage, emergency lights along the staircases, fire damper and a building management system. Even if automatic detection system and manually operated fire alarm points are installed, they have not been known to work properly till date. It has been over two years since they have been asked to make the necessary changes.
Also, they have goods stacked at all floors and staircases leaving no space for customers to escape in case of fire. The fire safety department alleged that they have not submitted any records regarding the conduct of fire drills. While another popular chain, which has witnessed a fire accident recently, also flouts almost all the above-mentioned norms; it also does not have fire exit staircases with the width enhanced to 1.5 metres. Even the new branches opened in several parts of the city do not comply with any norms.
Issues in infrastructure Almost all the audits carried out in the area stated that the access road width to multi-storey buildings at T Nagar, especially at North Usman Road and Ranganathan street are very narrow with heavy congestion on either sides of the flyover near Chennai Silks. The entrance width of the Ranganathan street is 5.6 m and with this the road access would be very difficult to take the fire fighting vehicles, the report says. Despite facing a major issue during the Chennai Silks fire as fire-fighting vehicles got stuck in narrow roads, no steps have been taken yet.
“When the fire broke out at T Nagar, while the local fire engine reached on time, others had to take a detour to reach the area. This resulted in a lot of delay,” said Kannan Balachandran, a resident of T Nagar. As per development regulations of CMDA, the access road width for multi-storeyed buildings from the road must be 18m or with limitations upto 12m or 15m. But the access road width is still less than 4m. During normal working hours, ordinary fire vehicles would find it very difficult to access most of the busy streets in T Nagar.
