Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is evaluating the option of allowing hotels and guest houses that have been shut down after the Free School Street fire, that claimed nine lives on Aug 19, to reopen on the basis of an undertaking from owners that they would take appropriate steps to comply with fire and building rules.A KMC source told TOI that the civic body may offer four months to owners of such establishments to upgrade the fire norms, after which the members of the joint committee constituted to oversee the fire safety and other KMC norms for running these establishments, will revisit them and take the final decision.The possibility of such an undertaking was discussed after an urgent meeting at the KMC headquarters on Monday afternoon which was attended by senior officials from the fire services department, KMC, and cops.“We are under pressure to take effective steps and consider the possibility of reopening the closed hotels and guest houses considering that thousands of employees working at these establishments are under the threat of losing their employment ahead of Durga Puja,” said a civic body official.Around 1,100 hotels and guest houses are lying closed, and the civic body’s fire safety audit is far from over. The official added that of these closed establishments, only 170 owners have applied for reopening. However, not even 10% of these establishments have been able to upgrade the fire safety norms as desired by the committee members.Earlier, it was decided that the KMC will set a Sept 20 deadline for such an audit of the establishments. Sources in the KMC buildings department said the department was zeroing on areas across 16 boroughs where these hotels or guest houses are concentrated in particular zones or neighbourhoods.These closure notices apart, several lodges, guest houses and hotels in central Kolkata have voluntarily suspended operations, fearing sudden closure notices from the KMC and the state fire department during an ongoing safety audit, said an official.
